The Covid-19 pandemic might be the death of many businesses but some businesses thrive in these troubled times.
Some take this chance to shine, others missed out on this opportunity.
Zoom
Zoom calls itself the “leader in modern enterprise video communications” and provides video and audio conferencing technology across various devices.
Given how people are encouraged to stay home now, more will use the platform for company meetings and online-based learning.
200 million people used Zoom daily in March 2020 compared to just 10 million in December 2019.
It wouldn’t be too far to say that this platform has the chance to rise to the top of the world because of this pandemic.
Unfortunately, that won’t be a reality in Singapore, or anywhere else in the world.
Ministry of Education (MOE) Bans Zoom For Online Learning
On 9 Apr, Singapore’s very own MOE bans Zoom for online learning.
They announced that Singapore’s teacher will suspend holding their online classes on Zoom until Zoom’s security issues are ironed out.
“As a precautionary measure, our teachers will suspend their use of Zoom until these security issues are ironed out.”
If needed, MOE says it’ll lodge a police report.
Home-based learning, the ministry assures, will not be affected.
“Teachers will continue to utilise the range of resources available under the Singapore Student Learning Space, as well as offline teaching and learning.”
What Happened
According to The Straits Times, a secondary one student was watching a geography lesson when the stream turned into images of d**ks.
Two Caucasian men then appeared and told her class of 39 to “show us your b**bs”.
The incident is supposedly caused by hackers.
The mother immediately informed the school. She said, “When she is surfing the Internet, she does not encounter such things. Home-based learning is supposed to be a safe space, but now our children have to be exposed to such things?
“I know it’s difficult to manage but as a parent, I feel very concerned.”
Zoom Hasn’t Been Working Well Even Before This Incident
In recent weeks, there have been security concerns about the app, which my colleague has written about here.
Here’s a summary:
- They allegedly send data to Facebook (but stopped doing that after they were “exposed”)
- There’s allegedly a security issue in which hackers can control the mic and webcam if you’re using Apple iMac
- It’s allegedly very easy for strangers to jump into the videoconferencing
- Zoom recordings are allegedly exposed
…and many more.
Once again, I said allegedly because no one would know for sure if they are indeed vulnerabilities, though its CEO has admitted that there were some “missteps” and they were working to resolve them.
One thing for sure, though, Zoom’s going to have a hard time trying to zoom through the Covid-19 pandemic crisis.