Zoom Hires Former Facebook CSO and Sets Up Council

Following concerns over the safety of videoconferencing app Zoom, the firm has appointed former Facebook Chief Security Officer Alex Stamos as an Advisor and has set up a CISO (Chief Information Security Officer) Council to advise on privacy, security and technology issues and best practices.

Zoom offers a free cloud platform for video, phone, content sharing and chat across mobile devices, desktops, telephones and room systems. Recently, a number of privacy experts have raised concerns about the platform, with one finding that the Mac version secretly installed a web server, enabling hackers to take control of users' webcams; another discovering that hackers could guess Zoom Meeting IDs, making it possible for them to listen in on meetings that were not password protected; and a third finding that the iOS version of the Zoom app sent to Facebook information such as when a user opened the app, their time zone, city and device details, without first asking users for their consent.

While Zoom has since addressed these issues, organizations such as Google and the US Senate have advised employees to stop using the platform, because of concerns around data security. In addition, Democratic Senator Ed Markey has joined a group urging the Federal Trade Commission to investigate Zoom, and also issue guidelines for the broader industry. In response, Zoom has set up a 90-day plan outlining steps to ensure the safety, privacy and security of its platform; and as well as the new CISO Council has established an Advisory Board, which will include a subset of CISOs acting as advisors to Zoom founder Eric Yuan.
Stamos (pictured) brings experience from more than three years as Facebook CSO, leading a team charged with understanding and mitigating information security risks for the company's 2.5 billion users. He left Facebook in 2018, and is currently the director of Stanford University's Internet Observatory, while also serving on the Advisory Board to NATO's Collective Cybersecurity Center of Excellence. Yuan comments: 'We are grateful to Alex and our CISO Council members for their vote of confidence in Zoom and their desire to help make us even better. Together, I have no doubt we will make Zoom synonymous with safety and security'.

Web site: www.zoom.us .