Zoom App Now Banned on New York Schools

A number of schools in New York, United States (US) began to ban the use of the Zoom video conference application. This ban is carried out after a number of security issues arise in the application.

Quoted from CNN, the New York City Department of Education this week has ordered schools to immediately switch from Zoom for conference call needs.

"There are many new components in distance learning, and we make real time decisions for the benefit of our staff and students," said New York City Department of Education spokesman Danielle Filson.

Filson added, their department did not have a central contract with Zoom. Instead, staff and students will use Microsoft Teams' platform, which has similar capabilities but has a more appropriate security system.

To note, earlier this week, a number of federal agencies began giving warnings related to security and privacy in the Zoom application. One of the caveats is related to Zoombombing.

Zoombombing is a cyber attack in the form of outside interference that hijacks video conferencing by sending pornographic images or expressions of hate accompanied by threats, thus stopping any online social interaction that is being carried out.

This attack is known to increase significantly during the pandemic considering there are many people using this application during work and study from home. A number of events occurred in the middle of online teaching and learning activities.

Responding to this, Eric Yuan as founder and CEO of Zoom openly expressed his apology. Eric said, he and his team immediately addressed the problem. For the time being, there will be no addition of the new Zoom feature, but rather focus on fixing security holes and issues related to user privacy.

"We realize that we do not meet the expectations of the privacy and security of our users and ourselves. Regarding that, we are very sorry," Eric said through the official Zoom blog.

Eric said there were more than 90 thousand schools in 20 countries using their services, considering that Zoom offered a free platform for schools to help during the COVID-19 pandemic.