I really cannot comprehend how Johnson was allowed to use Zoom for a cabinet meeting - I would have expected GCHQ to be all over it.

This makes interesting reading https://www.theregister.co.uk/2020/04/03/dont_use_zo...

Our teams have been told not to use it at all now. Our local school wants to use it because they’re only talking about kids..........what could possibly go wrong!

I have to say I'm amazed that they don't seem to have a proper secure system for such purposes within the Cabinet Office. It's just ludicrous.

I know government IT contracts usually end as expensive disasters but writing such a system securely from scratch isn't exactly rocket science.

In reply to a post by caffn8me:

I have to say I'm amazed that they don't seem to have a proper secure system for such purposes within the Cabinet Office. It's just ludicrous.

The BBC article confirmed they did have a system for classified. Maybe this was only a "how well are you" conversation where some members only had their home PC.

It may have been used as a PR prop to show the country that "we can work from home, so can you".

We only have the press reports to go on!

The competition from Zoom prompted Webex to offer a free plan, so there's always that I suppose.

Here's some more interesting reading;

https://www.digitalmarketplace.service.gov.uk/g-clou...

Interesting.

Without wishing to don my tinfoil hat, Schneir's blog referred to Zoom's use of coders and servers situated in the Chinese republic:

However, this arrangement may make Zoom responsive to pressure from Chinese authorities.

Now if you had an authoritarian State that was heavy on surveillance with a big emphasis on face recognition, you would want to train your algorithms on the largest possible database of subjects. A suitable database might consist of large groups of people talking directly to camera.......

I understand that Zoom has hidden features that allow a user to be added to a call, without their knowledge... so no worries then!

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2020/apr/02/z...

I think for the average home user it is not going to be a problem. Government departments using it etc - absolute madness.

It goes to show you how disorganised government departments (central or non central) are which is why they're taking the easy route of using Zoom, because they probably lack any sort of ability to provision a more secure service.

Nothing new there then though.

I though I had read on the Register but cannot now find, that the Cabinet Office had earlier sent out a message to all departments that Zoom wasn't to be used.