Zoom Sued by Shareholders over Security Vulnerabilities

The Associated Press
The Associated Press

Video conferencing app Zoom has been sued by shareholders for overstating its security abilities and failing to disclose many vulnerabilities that have now been discovered by security researchers.

Reuters reports that the video conferencing app Zoom has received a class-action lawsuit from its shareholders this week for allegedly overstating the privacy standards of the app and failing to disclose the app’s vulnerabilities and that its video calls were not end-to-end encrypted.

Zoom shareholder Michael Drieu stated in a court filing that a number of recent articles disclosing Zoom’s various security issues have caused company stock to plummet after rallying for several days at the start of the year. Zoom’s shares were down 7.5 percent at $113.75 at market close on Tuesday.

Breitbart News recently reported that the CEO of the video conferencing company apologized in a blog post over the various security issues that its 200 million daily users are facing on the platform. CEO Eric Yuan announced a number of measures that the company is taking to make the app more secure as millions of Americans use the app to work and study from home. Breitbart News covered the criticism of the company over its lack of action on “Zoom bombing” last week.

Zoom’s usage has exploded since the beginning of the Wuhan coronavirus pandemic in January as many worldwide are forced to work or attend school from home, using the app for group meetings and online classes. In the blog post, Yuan stated that usage had increased by 1,900 percent with 200 million daily free and paying users in March up from 10 million at the end of December.

However, as Breitbart News has reported, the increased usage has also attracted online hackers and trolls. Hijacking zoom meetings to disrupt business and schoolwork has gained the nickname “Zoom bombing” on the Internet.

Multiple groups have now banned the use of Zoom such as the New York City Department of Education. Breitbart News recently reported that the government of Taiwan has banned all official use of the Zoom video conference app, citing the recent security issues that the app has come under fire for. It was also recently reported that some Zoom calls were being routed through China, a major state security concern for the Taiwanese government. In a statement on Tuesday, the Taiwanese cabinet stated that all agencies should avoid the use of Zoom.

Lucas Nolan is a reporter for Breitbart News covering issues of free speech and online censorship. Follow him on Twitter @LucasNolan or contact via secure email at the address lucasnolan@protonmail.com

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