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Singapore has suspended the use of Zoom for online education after hackers hijacked a lesson and displayed obscene images to students.
In what is known as “zoombombing,” two hackers interrupted a geography lesson a day after Singapore closed schools on Wednesday with partial closure measures to help curb local coronavirus transmissions.
Lessons have been moved online, and some teachers use video conferencing tools like Zoom.
The Singapore Ministry of Education said it was investigating the “serious incidents” and could submit police reports.
UNSPLASH
Singapore teachers have been the latest victims of ‘Zoombombing’ after hackers disrupted online classes.
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“We are already working with Zoom to improve its security settings and make these security measures clear and easy to follow,” said Aaron Loh, director of the ministry’s Division of Educational Technology.
“As a precautionary measure, our teachers will suspend their use of Zoom until these security issues are resolved,” Loh said.
Singapore is not the only country affected by interruptions to teleconferencing. On March 30, the FBI issued a warning warning users to avoid going public with Zoom meetings after receiving multiple reports of teleconferences and online classrooms disrupted by hackers displaying hate messages or shouting profanity.
Part of the “Zoombombing” problem occurs because users tend to create public meetings for convenience. That allows anyone to join a meeting as long as they have a link to it, according to Michael Gazeley, managing director and co-founder of cybersecurity company Network Box.
Mark Lennihan / AP
Zoom has implemented stronger security measures and says it is “deeply upset” by reports of harassment on its platform.
“The details of the conferences are often given publicly, because the organizers want as many attendees as possible,” said Gazeley.
“With Zoom, it was possible to set up meetings without passwords, so many people did exactly that. Whenever humans have a choice between convenience and security, convenience almost always wins,” he said.
Zoom implemented stronger security measures last week, such as enabling passwords and virtual waiting rooms for users.
“We are deeply upset by the increase in reports of harassment on our platform and strongly condemn that behavior,” a company spokesperson Zoom said in an emailed statement.
“We are listening to our user community to help us evolve our approach and help our users protect themselves against these attacks.”
Security researchers previously found software vulnerabilities in Zoom, particularly for Mac users, where hackers could take over feeding a user’s webcam. Zoom has solved the problem ever since.
