B.C. education ministry gives reassurances amid Zoom hacking concerns

A day after it announced the purchase of a licence to use Zoom, B.C.’s Ministry of Education addressed security concerns about the popular video conferencing service.

The ministry has offered Zoom to teachers at K-12 public and independent schools so they can try out different remote-learning methods, which will vary from school to school.

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The conferencing service, which has experienced a surge in popularity as people around the globe are told to stay home under the COVID-19 pandemic, has reportedly become the target of hackers.

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In Ontario, a recent online seminar organized by the Canada Antisemitism Education Foundation appeared to have have been hacked.

On Thursday, the B.C. Ministry of Education said the Zoom application provided to school districts has security features that are not available on the app’s free version.

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Students will be given a unique website address to access their virtual classroom and will not need to register for an individual account.

The ministry went on to say the Zoom server will be based in Canada, with added encryption to increase privacy and security. The provincial privacy commissioner has also been consulted.