Yesterday, the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) warned of what has been deemed “Zoom bombing,” in which people hijack Zoom video conferences currently popular for telecommuting and online classes. The goal of these hijackers is to disrupt those meetings electronically over the platform or pulling pranks that are later shared on social media platforms. The FBI stated that they had received numerous reports of conferences being disrupted by hate images, threatening language, and pornographic material.
According to the FBI, several Massachusetts schools, among others, have reported incidents of Zoom-bombing. In one March incident, a high school reported to the FBI that an unidentified individual joined an online session of a class taking place on Zoom, yelling profanities and shouting the teacher’s home address. In an unrelated incident, a hijacker joined a Zoom classroom meeting of a different Massachusetts based school, displaying swastika tattoos on his webcam. Due to the increase in Zoom-related incidents, the FBI warned those hosting Zoom sessions to make them private and ensure that the link is not shared on any social media platform.
Read More: FBI Warns of Ongoing Zoom-Bombing Attacks on Video Meetings
