Zoom hires Salesforce security executive as CISO

Jason Lee

Video conferencing company Zoom has hired former Salesforce and Microsoft security executive Jason Lee as its new CISO.

Lee comes in as Zoom approaches the end of its self-imposed 90-day period to put in place more comprehensive security and privacy policies.

Lee, who spent almost three years with Salesforce as its senior VP of security operations, will start as Zoom's CISO on 29 June. He has over 20-years worth of experience in technology, specialising in information security.

Before joining Salesforce, he was the principal director of security engineering for the Windows and Devices division in Microsoft, responsible for protecting online services of Windows Update, Xbox Live and Microsoft's online store.

He now joins Zoom, where his security credentials will be heavily tested.

"Zoom is on an incredible journey of growth and I am thrilled to bring my experience of running world-class security organisations to the company," Lee said in a statement. "Ensuring that customers trust our products is of the utmost importance and I look forward to working with the team to continue instilling security into the DNA of Zoom."

Trust in Zoom has been in short supply, particularly with big organisations, with repeated security flaws leading to the likes of Microsoft, the FBI and even the country of Taiwan ban use of the video conferencing platform.

The company has repeatedly pledged to fix the problems, setting itself a three-month time limit in April to get the right protocols in place. Lee is Zoom's latest move, as he will look to implement protocols to stop 'Zoom bombing", as well as improve encryption standards and password security.

"Our customers' security is extremely important and is at the core of everything we do," said Aparna Bawa, Zoom's COO.

"We are excited to welcome Jason, who has deep industry experience, understands the complexity of servicing a wide variety of users, and can lead Zoom's efforts to strengthen the security of our platform during this time of rapid expansion."

Bobby Hellard

Bobby Hellard is ITPro's Reviews Editor and has worked on CloudPro and ChannelPro since 2018. In his time at ITPro, Bobby has covered stories for all the major technology companies, such as Apple, Microsoft, Amazon and Facebook, and regularly attends industry-leading events such as AWS Re:Invent and Google Cloud Next.

Bobby mainly covers hardware reviews, but you will also recognize him as the face of many of our video reviews of laptops and smartphones.