By Joleen Traynor
In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, businesses, schools, and other groups have moved to remote learning and work. In the course of this shift, Zoom has been a popular platform for video calls, meetings, and lectures. However, this has introduced a new avenue for hackers and unwelcome parties to hijack these online meetings, a practice known as “Zoom bombing”. This involves hackers joining online meetings throughout the world and sharing disturbing, and even illegal, images and videos with those in the meeting. Zoom bombing “refers to a form of cyber harassment reported by some app users, who have reported that some of their calls have been hijacked by unidentified individuals and trolls who spew hateful language or share graphic images.”[1] “Anyone who has a link to a public meeting can join. Links to public Zooms are traded in Facebook Groups and Discord chats, and are easily discoverable on Twitter and public event pages.”[2] These public meetings are fairly easy to find and access, providing ample opportunities for hijackers to enter meetings. This phenomenon has become so severe so quickly, even the FBI is getting involved. “The FBI has received multiple reports of conferences being disrupted by pornographic and/or hate images and threatening language.”[3]
The sudden explosion in popularity of Zoom is part of the reason this phenomenon exists. “Before the coronavirus pandemic, Zoom had 10 million daily users. By April, it claimed to have 300 million – before backtracking to admit the statistic is really 300 million ‘meeting participants’ per day.”[4] With this increased usage, Zoom has released updated guidelines for safer use of the platform to prevent these Zoom bombing incidents. Zoom recommends taking safety precautions such as creating and using a secure meeting room, creating waiting rooms, and only allowing the host to screen share.[5]
Police departments have also stepped up their game in handling incidents of Zoom bombing. In early September, a nineteen-year-old man was arrested for making threats while interrupting a University of Houston remote class.[6]Another individual was arrested and charged with computer crimes earlier this year in Connecticut.[7] It is important that these threats are taken seriously and swift action is taken against perpetrators.
Finally, users may face an internal threat when using Zoom for meetings. It was recently discovered that Zoom was sharing user information and data with Facebook, “even data on people who are not Facebook users.”[8] Zoom has ceased sharing this information once this was discovered[9], but this just shows that there is still work to be done in order to better secure our online meeting space.
Looking ahead, online meeting and learning spaces will likely be the new normal, at least for the immediate future. In an increasingly digital world, it is more important than ever to secure our online meeting spaces, and to ensure that there are safe, reliable, and secure ways for people to meet and communicate remotely. This is a safety issue that affects us all, and online meetings, on Zoom or otherwise, are likely here to stay.
[1] Dakin Andone, FBI warns video calls are getting hijacked. It’s called ‘Zoombombing’, CNN (Apr. 2, 2020, 5:00 PM), https://www.cnn.com/2020/04/02/us/fbi-warning-zoombombing-trnd/index.html.
[2] Taylor Lorenz, ‘Zoombombing’: When Video Conferences Go Wrong, N.Y. Times (Apr. 7, 2020), https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/20/style/zoombombing-zoom-trolling.html.
[3] Press Release, FBI, FBI Warns of Teleconferencing and Online Classroom Hijacking During COVID-19 Pandemic (Mar. 30, 2020), https://www.fbi.gov/contact-us/field-offices/boston/news/press-releases/fbi-warns-of-teleconferencing-and-online-classroom-hijacking-during-covid-19-pandemic.
[4] Sebastian Meineck and Paul Schwenn, ‘Zoom Bombers’ Are Still Blasting Private Meetings With Disturbing and Graphic Content, Vice (June 10, 2020, 8:42 AM), https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/m7je5y/zoom-bombers-private-calls-disturbing-content.
[5] Security at Zoom, https://zoom.us/security (last visited Sept. 20, 2020).
[6] Christina Carrega, Texas man arrested for ‘Zoombombing’ a university class lecture with a bomb threat, CNN (Sept. 8, 2020, 5:30 PM), https://www.cnn.com/2020/09/08/us/university-zoombombing-isis-arrest/index.html
[7] Teen Arrested After ‘Zoom Bombing’ High School Classes, NY Post, (April 8, 2020), https://nypost.com/2020/04/08/teen-arrested-after-zoom-bombing-high-school-classes/.
[8] Shannon Bond, A Must For Millions, Zoom Has A Dark Side — And An FBI Warning, NPR (Apr. 3, 2020, 5:00 AM), https://www.npr.org/2020/04/03/826129520/a-must-for-millions-zoom-has-a-dark-side-and-an-fbi-warning.
[9] Id.
Image Source: https://www.theburnin.com/technology/what-is-zoom-bombing-how-to-stop-it-2020-3/