When the Covid-19 caused countries to lockdown for long periods of time, people resorted to digital connections. Video conferencing platforms such as Zoom became so popular that no one expected the number of subscribers to shoot up from just 10 million to 200 million within a short period of time.
As expected, when you have a big crowd in the physical world, you can expect pickpockets to operate. The same happens also in the cyberspace.
Meanwhile, I believe Zoom's sudden popularity has hit some of the bigger boys as well. It's all about the numbers' game. While Zoom has admitted they were also caught by surprise with the number of subscribers, I believe there are also hired cyber troopers who are out there to kill Zoom. Let me present to you some screen grabs that will allow you to see why I believe there are people who are specially hired to spread rumours about Zoom.
1. There were messages flying around saying that people with Zoom installed on their laptops have complained that their CIMB and Maybank accounts have been hacked. I checked with Star newspaper and they were able to ask at least one of the banks. This is their report.2. I was on a discussion with an Aramean Christian brother in Galilee who wanted to share his knowledge about the missing Aramaic link to Jesus' times. We were planning to use Zoom, since most people in Malaysia are already connected on Zoom. A night before the Zoom session, this brother was bombarded by someone with 30 over messages urging him not to use Zoom; instead to use some other alternatives, which include Skype, described as a "solid Zoom alternative." My personal experience with Skype a couple of years ago is that it is very primitive.
3. How this person managed to get the telephone number of my friend is anyone's guess. I asked him to tell me how, and he said he has somewhat superior technology to do it.
4. After some work of tracing back how this person even knew that I was discussing with this brother in Galilee, I found his number in a chat group with some 200 people. They were all invited because they were registered to attend classes offered by an online seminary.By now, I had got this person to chat. Casually I asked if he is still attending a church which I named out of the blue. And his answer was, "Yes I did attend, but has since stopped before the MCO." I knew straightaway this was a fake.
<<-- After asking the administrator for the details of this person in the chat group we are in, I was told the 'registration' via Whatsapp is no longer there.
What shocked me was when I came back from getting a drink, and I found my chat with this person had been totally erased! I pretended that I did not know what happened.
The truth is: who would have the ability to ERASE every conversation you had with him unless he has superior technology OR he has access to some servers that an ordinary person would not have? I don't know. Perhaps, you can tell me!
As far as I know, Whatsapp only allows you to erase your messages to the person within a certain time limit. You would not be able to erase his messages on his Whatsapp screen. But, in this case, every trace of my earlier conversation with this person which I managed to screenshot and presented here, had simply been erased. Not a single trace of our conversation!
5. Mind you, this person even had the ability to track the Whatsapp mobile number of my friend in Galilee and addressing him by the full name. The question how he (or she) found the information is as good a guess as mine.
6. On the evening of our Zoom chat with my Aramean friend, we had one person identified simple as 'Nancy's iPad' who were allowed to enter the chat. After a lot of persuasion to ask 'Nancy's iPad' to turn on the video and interact, there was no response. I finally told my friend to remove the person. Strangely, this 'Nancy's iPad' could not be removed! Superior technology again!
Because there were just three of us and this 'Nancy's iPad', I told my friends to log out and log in again. This time, the host would make sure that if Nancy's iPad came into the waiting room again, he /she should not be allowed to enter. Well, of course, 'Nancy's iPad' never returned!
7. Meanwhile, in the Whatsapp chat group that this strange person and I were in, there were some posts to scare people off from using Zoom. As a result, although it was a seminary course that was provided free of charge on Old Testament Survey and New Testament Survey, the number was reduced by about 30. You can say it was an attack on the seminary, but it did not appear like that to me. This same person who claimed that he was a Christian started attacking and using foul language in the way that you would not expect to come out of a truly born-again Christian's mouth.8. I have other evidences but it is too long to delve into it. From here, it is obvious there are attempts to kill Zoom, for whatever reasons! While we can understand that the big boys are involved in billion Dollars businesses by providing such service platforms worldwide, and they can afford to attack and kill each other, I think we have to tell them to get off our back and leave us alone. We decide what we think is good and your attacking of each other has gone too far. We will have none of this nonsense.
A week or two later, I received this message from the same person, now suggesting us to switch to Google Zoom. Who would take so much trouble unless he/she works for some competition?
9. As long as the technology is good whether it is Zoom, Webex, Skype or Google GotoMeeting, we will use it. All IT platforms have their weaknesses. Even Google has been accused of having security issues and I personally uninstalled Webex from my laptop just because I noticed not once but a number of times, it was using my laptop camera without my authorisation. Although Cisco Webex website assured me that this is 'normal', I don't trust the company either. You have seen that from my evidence provided above, even Whatsapp is not secure and the entire conversation I had with this stranger could be erased without a single trace.
The safest thing is to make sure all sensitive information like banking passwords are not on the same device that you use for any digital platforms. Even that, no one can be 100% foolproof. If banks can be robbed, anything can happen in the digital world!
