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Comment by Ijumfs | Hacker News Reader

Why are courts using Chinese spyware to conduct official business?

The same reason why Europeans use American spyware and adware to communicate with eachother.

Because the risk profile permits it. In this county, many courts are open, and prior to COVID, you could just walk into one and listen. Court decisions are likewise open, and part of the public record.

Edit: Did you also know that courts and lawyers still use faxes? Did you know that tapping a fax line has been trivial for decades?

"Sorry, we can't accept an email. You'll have to fax it to us. Why, you ask? Because security reasons..."

Just a side note, but some jurisdictions treat faxing similarly to giving a document in-person. For example, signing a contract and faxing it can be considered the same as certified mail. Generally not so with email. I'm not saying it's right by the way, just that is how it is sometimes.

Interesting. I know for a long time "HIPAA reasons" was another justification, which is just downright crazy.

The court is already public, no spying necessary.

So? Most of Zoom's vulnerabilities have been about endpoint security, not meeting privacy.

That is clearly not the case. This particular issue with Zoom was caused by user error, there are settings to prevent exactly what happened, not some endpoint exploit.

The court is open to the public. What threat is "chinese spyware" when you are publishing the meeting anyway?

His point was that the software itself is insecure and installing it on your machine is a security issue, regardless of the content you're hosting using it.

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