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Sara Cunningham
Sara Cunningham

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ZOOMing in on CISO, Jason Lee

In June 2020, Zoom hired Jason Lee as CISO

Headshot of Jason Lee
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A chief information security officer (CISO) is essential in any organization. A CISO is responsible for an organization's information and data security (Fruhlinger, 2019). Responsibilities of a CISO include security operations, security architecture, program management, governance, investigations and forensics, and data loss/prevention.

As new and old applications become utilized more often, security risks become more prevalent and easily accomplished. Zoom, a communications software platform, has gained a lot of recognition and popularity due to COVID-19. In fact, in December 2019, Zoom had 10 million daily users, and in April 2020, there were over 300 million participants. In only four months, there was a 30x growth (Evans, 2020). The rise of Zoom has helped in various industries like businesses, education, medical, etc. Although Zoom has been a leading software, it has raised concerns and increased awareness of security. In April 2020, Zoom imposed a 90-day period to fix security flaws and private policy. One of Zoom's significant problems, nicknamed "zoombombings," was caused by unwelcome guests on video conferences and sharing users' data with Facebook (Levy, 2020).

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As Zoom became a dominant leader throughout the pandemic, they decided to hire a new chief information security officer (CISO) in late June 2020. Jason Lee joined the company with more than 20 years of information security (Cimpanu, 2020). At Washington State University, Lee got his degree in finance and computer science and passed the Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP). He then joined Microsoft as a senior manager in 2002. Lee's tenure at Microsoft included various roles, such as group program manager, principal manager, senior director, and chief security engineer director. During his 15 years with Microsoft, he managed global engineers, developed and implemented privacy training and strategy, developed digital security, and managed security policies. Additionally, he protected the online services of Windows Update, Xbox Live, and Microsoft online store (Cimpanu, 2020).

Later in 2017, Lee joined Salesforce as a senior vice president of security. At Salesforce, he worked with hundreds of security professionals and conducted the following operational security functions: system security, network security, threat and vulnerability management, crypto operations, etc.

Now at Zoom, he is an accredited CISO that will help Zoom's security daily. Lee commented about his new position, saying: "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."

References
Cimpanu, C. (2020, June 24). Zoom hires Jason Lee from Salesforce to serve as new CISO. ZDNet. https://www.zdnet.com/article/zoom-hires-jason-lee-from-salesforce-to-serve-as-new-ciso/

Evans, B. (2020, June 23). The Zoom Quarter: 10 Eye-Popping Stats from Tech’s New Superstar. Cloud Wars. https://cloudwars.co/covid-19/zoom-quarter-10-eye-popping-stats-from-techs-new-superstar/#:%7E:text=4.,meeting%20participants%20were%20using%20Zoom.

Fruhlinger, J. (2019, January 14). What is a CISO? Responsibilities and requirements for this vital leadership role. CSO Online. https://www.csoonline.com/article/3332026/what-is-a-ciso-responsibilities-and-requirements-for-this-vital-leadership-role.html

Levy, A. (2020, June 24). Zoom hires security executive from Salesforce as chief information security officer. CNBC. https://www.cnbc.com/2020/06/24/zoom-names-salesforces-jason-lee-chief-information-security-officer.html

Zoom Hires Jason Lee as Chief Information Security Officer. (2020, June 25). Zoom Blog. https://blog.zoom.us/zoom-hires-jason-lee-as-chief-information-security-officer/

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