Zoom hackers use porn and racist messages to cut in on video conference calls

The FBI is now getting involved with curtailing Zoombombing, which has occurred in recent weeks as video conferencing on Zoom has become more widespread during the coronavirus pandemic.

Zoombombing occurs when hackers take over the Zoom video conference and display unwanted material, which is oftentimes inappropriate, Forbes reported.

Who Is being hacked?

There have been reports of Zoom calls being hacked at universities, schools, churches and political conferences, according to media reports.

Two Zoom calls for Massachusetts schools were recently hacked, according to the FBI. In one, a person, who has not been identified, dialed into the virtual class and “yelled a profanity” and shouted the home address of the teacher, the FBI stated. A second person hacked a school’s class and showed swastika tattoos, according to the FBI.

Anti-Jewish propaganda was also shown at a California school board meeting, where hackers posted “cartoon images of Hitler, photos of Nazi soldiers and swastikas,” Forward reported.

One woman tweeted she was participating in a Shabbat service on Zoom, when Nazis showed up.

An Austin church youth group meeting was hacked by a person who exposed himself, according to Religion News Service.

“It was generally chaotic and impossible to stop,” Alex Merritt told RNS. “It was a huge wake-up call for me because I’m an elementary school teacher, and I don’t want the children in my class exposed to any of the pornographic images that trolls sent us.”

Politicians are not immune to Zoombombing either. Hackers flooded a town hall meeting of Utah governor candidate Aimee Winder Newton and posted “pornographic images and racial slurs,” The Salt Lake Tribune reported.

At University of Texas, a meeting of students, staff and faculty was hacked with “racist Zoombombing,” said UT President Greg Fenves. There have been additional reports of Zoombombing at Illinois State University, University of Southern California and Arizona State University.

“I didn’t notice it until a student on chat said something about It,” Arizona State professor Lance Gharavi told Inside High Ed about a porn video being shown on one of his class video conferences. “The chat window became incredibly active. Most of the comments were not on topic. They were vulgar, racist, misogynistic toilet humor. I would barely even call it humor.”

What is Zoom doing?

Zoom was the No. 1 downloaded app on the Apple App Store last week, according to Forward. But it’s not without its risks.

New York Attorney General Letitia James sent a letter to Zoom asking what security measures it Is implementing due to the increase in usage, the New York Times reported.

Zoom responded by stating it “takes privacy, security and trust extremely seriously” and that it Is “working around the clock to ensure that hospitals, universities, schools and other businesses across the world can stay connected and operational,” the Times reported.

The company also released a guide showing people how to restrict their chats.

Zoom has ways to secure virtual classrooms, which include locking the meetings, controlling screen sharing, locking down the chat feature and removing participants.

The FBI warns people to not make meetings public and to not publicly share links to the teleconference. It asks victims of teleconference hacking to report it to the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center at ic3.gov.

This story was originally published March 31, 2020 at 7:50 AM.