U.S. Military, Government Workers Still Use Zoom Despite FBI Warning
To date, Zoom remains on the approved list of mobile phone applications for U.S. Department of Defense employees, according to multiple officials.
However, one senior defense official said the Pentagon was currently looking into “guidance adjustments” for the application.
Multiple employees at the State Department have also been using Zoom for official business. One staff member said he and his colleagues have daily Zoom meetings and have not received any guidance against using the app for internal and external communication.
Assistant Secretary of State for Political-Military Affairs R. Clarke Cooper last week tweeted about his department’s use of a “Zoom Room.”
The State Department sent an email to employees Thursday morning saying that the free version of Zoom ”is not authorized for the conduct of official business or on official Department devices used to access OpenNet.” It told employees to use Cisco Webex, FAN Google Meet, Microsoft Teams or Skype for Business.
“While the Government version of Zoom may be reviewed for Department adoption in the future, Zoom has been approved for use on Dedicated Internet Networks (DIN),” the email said. “In light of new security concerns, the Bureau of Information Resource Management office of Information Assurance (IA) will take a fresh look at this and address any cybersecurity concerns that may exist.”
On Capitol Hill, a U.S. lawmaker’s office insisted that VOA use Zoom for an interview, despite the FBI warning. The lawmaker’s press secretary told the reporter that there would not be security issues because the meeting was password protected.
A Zoom spokeswoman told VOA Zoom takes user security “extremely seriously.”
“A large number of global institutions ranging from the world’s largest financial services companies, to leading telecommunications providers, government agencies, universities and others have done exhaustive security reviews of our user, network and datacenter layers and confidently selected Zoom for complete deployment,” a Zoom spokesperson said Thursday.
While various parts of the U.S. government have yet to restrict Zoom use, U.S. tech giant Google has banned the popular videoconferencing software from its employees’ devices.
Last week, Google sent an email to employees citing Zoom’s “security vulnerabilities” and warning the videoconferencing software on employee laptops would cease working.
Germany’s Foreign Ministry has also restricted the use of Zoom, allowing it only on fixed connection computers, rather than mobile devices after concluding the app’s software had “critical” weaknesses, according to media reports Wednesday.
Concerns of Chinese cybertheft
Scott Stewart, vice president of Stratfor’s Threat Lens and a former diplomatic security service special agent, told VOA a “good portion” of Zoom’s development team is in China, and the videoconferencing company’s failure to use end-to-end encryption could allow an employee under pressure by the Chinese government to access and share private conversations.
Defense Secretary Mark Esper has repeatedly said maintaining a military advantage over China is the Pentagon’s “highest priority,” and for years top military officers have warned of China’s use of forced technology transfer, intellectual property theft and cyber-espionage to expand their military capabilities.
Steinberg told VOA he would not recommend Zoom use on military or government computers.
“Other apps are more time tested,” he said.
Carla Babb is VOA’s Pentagon correspondent. Nike Ching, Katherine Gypson, Michelle Quinn and Patsy Widakuswara contributed to this report.This article is published courtesy of the Voice of America (VOA).
