Private Schools Change Remote Learning Schedules as a Precaution
Some people managed to hack into Zoom. The archives .
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A number of private school departments in Fujairah have cautiously changed the remote zoom program to another, more private program, in response to security warnings from information technology experts to hack into the privacy of students and educational staff.
An administration at a private school in Fujairah, Ayesha Salem, reported that her school studied the negatives of the Zoom program on the privacy of students and their parents as well as the educational staff. After the school hired a technical expert, it was revealed that the Zoom program is easily vulnerable to hacking into students' devices and educational staff, which are considered within the school's responsibility.
She added that such programs have not prevented the educational staff from preventing anyone from attending classes, especially with so many students and easy access to the class link being sent to students and their children.
And students at private schools in Fujira received emails saying, "As you've seen in various media lately, there were concerns about the safety of using Zoom as an online platform, so we decided to stop using Zoom by the end of the week, understanding that this could be a nuisance for you, but the safety of our children is our top priority, and we're going back to using Microsoft Times starting Sunday, April 26th. It's our primary platform for giving live lessons".
For his part, Information Security Advisor and individual and institutional performance analysis and development expert Sami A Nour emphasized that change is a necessary requirement to ensure students' privacy, as there is no software dedicated to students receiving their distance education securely, content and protecting their privacy, following that Microsoft Times is considered more secure than other programs.
He added that Zoom was designed for working groups and meetings for companies, but given the current circumstances and for precautionary measures to prevent the spread of the coronavirus, it has been used to implement the distance learning system in ways that are easier for students and parents, especially as some programs require deeper technical knowledge to deal with, while such as Zoom and Microsoft Thames, they are easily accessed via a link sent by the educational staff to students.
He pointed out that the features of Zoom have allowed it to be easily hacked by some and accessed into classrooms while students receive their education remotely, in order to mess with the educational system through the broadcast of videos unrelated to education, adding that the software itself records and stores all the videos made between teachers and students in its database, and uses them in any way it wants, whether in advertising or otherwise.
He pointed out that it was recently announced in various media outlets that more than 50 million users may have been leaked, including a number of students and their families.
Source: Emarat Al Youm