Quote:Ransomware isn’t the only way lax security can cost a business eight figures in damage. Zoom just lost an $85 million class-action lawsuit this week for its cybersecurity missteps, proving that even the most essential and relied-upon brands can be tripped up by inadequate security. More importantly, Zoom’s journey is an object lesson showing that cybersecurity matters to the bottom line.
 
“This large Zoom settlement should be a wake-up call to not only all software and service providers, but also for the enterprises that use them,” Emil Sayegh, president and CEO of Ntirety explained to Threatpost. “The only answer is a comprehensive security posture.”

No one could have possibly predicted how quickly Zoom would become the go-to way to do business in a pandemic-plagued economy. For context, on March 15, 2020, the day stay-at-home orders started to snowball across the globe, almost 600,000 users downloaded the app. In 2020, the Zoom reported a 326 percent spike in sales, and Zoom CEO Eric Yuan announced last March the company is still anticipating a 40-percent increase in sales in 2021.
 
The video-conferencing platform’s exploding user base also drew attention to security, with many wondering just how secure the app really was. By late March, Zoom found itself accused of misrepresenting its security. The company’s claims of offering end-to-end encryption turned out not to be exactly true, leaving conference data visible to Zoom itself.
 
Zoombombings also became an issue. Pranksters inserting pornographic images and other intrusions into conference meetings and even school sessions became so regular on the platform that by April 2020, the FBI was threatening teleconference hackers with jail time. The Zoombombings also drew the attention of New York Attorney General Letitia James who scrutinized the platform’s security.