Videoconferencing application Zoom on Wednesday responded to a circular from India’s Ministry of Home Affairs that had warned people against using the platform, calling it “unsafe”, Hindustan Times reported. The app is being widely used by people working from home globally during the coronavirus pandemic.

The ministry had also issued guidelines for those who wish to use the app, to prevent unauthorised entry in the Zoom conference room and even malicious activity by authorised participants on terminals of the other participants.

Advertisement

“Zoom takes user security extremely seriously,” a company spokesperson said. “A large number of global institutions...have done exhaustive security reviews of our user, network and data centre layers and continue to use Zoom for most or all of their unified communications needs.”

Zoom Video Communications Inc has faced some safety and privacy concerns over its conferencing app in the past too. The Computer Emergency Response Team of India, or CERT-In, had earlier this month asked Zoom users to use security features such as Waiting Rooms and Scheduling Privilege while accessing the video conferencing platform.

On Wednesday, Zoom also rolled out several new security features, AFP reported. Zoom Chief Executive Officer Eric Yuan laid out steps the company is taking to combat problems such as data hacking and harassment by individuals who crash sessions. By the end of this week, paid account holders will be able to select which regions their data is routed through during their sessions, Zoom said in an online announcement.

Advertisement

“As a reminder, meeting servers in China have always been geofenced with the goal of ensuring that meeting data of users outside of China stays outside of China,” the company said.

Zoom also said it is working with cyber-security firm Luta Security to overhaul its processes.