- Zoom Video Communications recently announced it hired former Facebook security chief Alex Stamos as an adviser
Zoom Video Communications recently announced it hired former Facebook security chief Alex Stamos as an adviser as the company is dealing with a security backlash.
Zoom has seen a surge in its use due to coronavirus lockdowns. But then a number of organizations pulled back on its usage due to “Zoombombing” (uninvited guests entering video calls) and the routing of its traffic through China.
Google banned the desktop version of Zoom from their corporate laptops and Berkeley High School officials suspended use of the app after a naked adult male intruded a password-protected meeting and used racial slurs during a video call, according to Reuters. It is rumored that the password was shared with the unauthorized caller.
The Taiwanese and German governments also restricted the use of Zoom due to security concerns.
Last month, Stamos wrote a series of tweets about how Zoom should be more transparent and he offered a 30-day security plan. Then Zoom founder and CEO brought on Stamos as an outside consultant.
“The adaptation of a successful enterprise collaboration tool into virtual classrooms, virtual doctor’s offices and a myriad of other applications (including at least one virtual Cabinet Room) has created privacy, trust and safety challenges that no company has ever faced,” wrote Stamos in a blog post. “As I told the computer science students in my Trust and Safety Engineering course this last quarter (the last two weeks of which were taught over, yes, Zoom) coding flaws and cryptographic issues are important, but the vast majority of real technological harm to individuals comes from people using products in a technically correct but harmful manner. Zoom has some important work to do in core application security, cryptographic design and infrastructure security, and I’m looking forward to working with Zoom’s engineering teams on those projects.”
