The United States Department of Defense has banned its employees from using the application Zoom, the popular application used for video conferencing. The fear is that foreign intelligence agencies may use developers' software to gather information.
The Pentagon made the announcement after the US Senate advised its members to refrain from using Zoom.
The video teleconferencing software is owned by Zoom video communications, a NASDAQ trading software company based in Jan Jose, California.
It has become popular in recent weeks, due to the growing reliance on teleworking due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Cyber experts have raised concerns about Zoom's user privacy security measures. On March 30, the FBI (Federal Bureau of Investigation) issued a "warning" stating that hackers could exploit a number of weaknesses found in Zoom's software.
The FBI reported that malicious users could have used Zoom to "stealing sensitive information, hitting people and companies that carry out financial transactions and then perpetrating extortion".
On April 9, Time magazine quoted "three US intelligence officials" as claiming that US counterintelligence agencies had "observed the intelligence services of Russia, Iran and North Korea in an attempt to spy on American video chats" on Zoom.
Their goal, Time reported, was to acquire "financial and personal information, industrial product developments, research and intellectual property information," and specifically to discover the goals of US government and companies.
On the same day, the U.S. Senate advised senators and their staff to refrain from using Zoom for congressional business.
Finally, on April 10, Pentagon spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Robert Carver (US Air Force) issued an official statement prohibiting the use of the Zoom application by military and civilian Department of Defense employees, including contractors.
Carver said Pentagon employees could use the app Zoom for Business, as it is safer and for which provisional authorization was issued under the United States Federal Risk Management and Authorization Program. He also reported that Pentagon employees can only use Zoom for private reasons.