The British government has been notified of its use of Zoom following several high-profile security incidents. The video conferencing service has seen a huge increase in user numbers in recent months due to global lockdowns implemented by coronaviruses, but with this boom has come increased scrutiny. This included warnings from the UK's National Cyber Security Center (NCSC) regarding Zoom's level of security, including cyber-attacks and potential data privacy issues.
Safety zoom
However, an access to information request from the Parliament Street think tank revealed that a total of 731 Zoom licenses had been ordered by major government departments since the start of the epidemic. This includes 550 Zoom accounts purchased by the Ministry of Defense (MoD), 150 from the Cabinet Office, 15 from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO), eight from the Central Office and five from the Treasury. These six key departments have also been found to have invested heavily in new devices to enable employees to work from home, with 41,300 new laptops, tablets and cell phones purchased to support remote staff. This figure included 27.589 new laptops, 4.011 tablets and 9.700 mobile phones, MoD invested again, buying 13.500 new laptops (and 9.467 new Microsoft Office 365 accounts), 3.263 new tablets and 2.200 new mobile phones. This spate of spending has not been seen across all areas of government, as the Department for Transport and the FCO have revealed that they had not purchased any new devices in response to the coronavirus outbreak. "The Covid-19 crisis saw millions of new users sign up for Zoom to host meetings and provide important updates to employees working remotely," said Paul Farrington, EMEA, CTO of Veracode. "However, in recent weeks, a number of security bugs and bugs have been discovered, raising new questions about cyber risks and privacy concerns associated with online conferencing systems. "With this in mind, it is essential that key government departments exercise caution when using the platform for sensitive meetings, around national security and public health. With the increase in cyber-attacks, it is also essential that users ensure they have downloaded the latest versions of these apps, to prevent hackers from accessing and stealing data."