India accounted for the most downloads of the video conferencing app zoom in April despite the govt warnings against its official use and various security issues, app intelligence firm Sensor Tower said. consistent with the firm, Zoom topped 131 million downloads last month, of which 18.2 percent came from India, followed by the US. aside from Zoom, TikTok also saw massive growth last month with over 107 million downloads globally. India also contributed the foremost – 22 percent – to the TikTok downloads.
As people follow social distancing guidelines amidst the coronavirus pandemic, they have moved to video conferencing apps like Zoom and Google Meet to not just lookout of the work obligations but also to stay in touch with their friends and family. Zoom and other app also are getting used by the varsity for virtual classrooms as students can’t physically attend screen during the lockdowns. This has led to the huge uptake of Zoom that has seen its downloads surge multiple fold over the last few months. Zoom’s popularity hasn’t been without issues and controversies and had even led to creation of the term “zoombombing.” Zoombombing refers to incidents when random strangers pop up in non-secure Zoom meetings and harass the users.
These issues forced the govt to warn its officials from using the app last month and issue a group of precautions for the public at large. in the advisory dated April 12, the Cyber Coordination Centre (CyCord) of the Ministry of Home Affairs highlighted security concerns about Zoom. Stressing that Zoom shouldn’t be employed by government offices/ officials for official purposes, CyCord added that it could still be employed by individuals in their personal capacity. If they choose to do so, they ought to follow security best practices. Even the computer Emergency Response Team of India, the national cybersecurity agency, had cautioned against the unguarded usage of the app and issued an advisory outlining the safety measures for both the operator and therefore the users.
