Demand for remote communication has grown significantly as the majority of business, education and other institutions has moved part of their activities to virtual communication amid the continuing COVID-19 emergency situation in Lithuania. The National Cyber Security Centre under the Ministry of National Defence warns about vulnerabilities of Zoom: the platform should not be used for sensitive information exchange. Experts also advise against using it in critical information infrastructure and public sector systems for inside service information exchange.
One of the most popular video conferencing and webinars platform may end up causing data security issue and theft of personal data.
Cybersecurity experts advise to use only the video feature for video conferencing on Zoom and to use another platform for chatting, or at least open Zoom through browser without installing the platform on the device. Users are also invited to be particularly vigilant when using Zoom via browser because counterfeits of the platform aiming to illegally obtain user data or get to download malware have been seen proliferating.
In the cases when the platform needs to be installed on the device, its most current version is recommended. According to National Cyber Security Centre experts, “organisations should not make Zoom chat channel ID public, Zoom Rooms should be protected with passwords. Users should also be added to chat rooms through waiting-room feature and only the chat host should be allowed to share-screen, also, “clean desktop” etiquette should be observed when screen sharing.
Realistic assessment of the security features of the used devices is particularly necessary when using Zoom: if a compromised device is used, the question of security of the video conference platform becomes irrelevant Experts of the National Cyber Security Centre advise users to be cautious at all times and pay particular attention to the reliability of links and files they get.
Information credits: National Cyber Security Centre
