Letters | Zoom attacks show web conferencing platforms must devise industry guidelines for safer systems
The rising popularity of video conferencing during the Covid-19 pandemic has been accompanied by a rise in “Zoombombing” or online hijacking of sessions. The industry must know that, for most users, sacrificing privacy for convenience is not acceptable
On April 27, an online exam venue of the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) was hijacked by several unidentified persons. Through the platform’s screen-sharing feature, porn videos and Indian songs were played during the Zoom meeting, and the exam was disrupted.
As a service provider on this scale, Zoom definitely needs to shoulder more social responsibility and build a safer system.
Firstly, it must improve encryption and increase privacy protection. As Zoom goes global, the personal and institutional privacy of millions of users are at stake. For most users, sacrificing privacy for the convenience of cloud-based conferencing would not be acceptable.
In the Zoombombing episode involving CUHK, some students were worried about personal information leaks, as they had to show their student ID cards during the online exam.