SINGAPORE (Technology) – Singapore suspended video-conferencing tool Zoom to be used by teachers, according to its education ministry after the occurrence of “very serious incidents” in the coronavirus lockdown’s first-week with home-based learning to replace schools.
An incident with obscene images appearing on screens with strange men passing lewd comments during a geography lesson stream with teenage girls.
There have been safety and privacy concerns about Zoom’s video conferencing app now spotting a surge in office and school usage worldwide as people remain home to try curb coronavirus infections.
“These are very serious incidents. MOE (Ministry of Education) is currently investigating both breaches and will lodge a police report if warranted. As a precautionary measure, our teachers will suspend their use of Zoom until these security issues are ironed out.”
– Aaron Loh from the Singapore Ministry’s educational technology division
Loh stated that teachers would be further advised on security protocols like secure log-ins and not sharing meeting links beyond the students.
Taiwan and Germany have placed restrictions on Zoom’s use, while Google banned Zoom’s desktop version from corporate laptops on Wednesday.
Concerns are mainly regarding Zoom’s lack of end-to-end encryption of meeting sessions, routing of traffic through China and “zoombombing” when uninvited guests crash meetings.
California’s Berkeley High School officials suspended use of the app after a “naked adult male using racial slurs” intruded on a password-protected meeting on Zoom.
To address these concerns, Zoom embarked on a 90-day plan to bolster its privacy and security issues and has hired former Facebook security chief Alex Stamos as an adviser.
(Photos syndicated via Reuters)
This story has been edited by BH staff and is published from a syndicated field.