'Zoom-bombing': FBI warns some teleconferences, online classrooms vulnerable to hackers
As teleconferences gain popularity during COVID-19, learn the risks and how to avoid security threats. Learn the FBI’s tips for staying secure online, amid Zoom hacker allegations during the pandemic.
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Police in Massachusetts are investigating "Zoom bombers" who took over an online church service and posted footage of a Ku Klux Klan meeting.
Tabernacle Congregational Church in Salem immediately reported the incident and it is being investigated as a hate crime by the FBI.
‘SECRET CHURCH’ EVENT HIT BY ‘CYBERATTACK’ PREVENTING PEOPLE FROM WATCHING IT LIVE
Rev. Joe Amico, pastor of Tabernacle, said the Zoom bombers joined the service about 10 and a half minutes in, asking to share their screen. They posted KKK cross-burning footage and played racially insensitive lyrics aimed at African Americans.
Tabernacle Congregational Church in Salem, Massachusetts was targeted by a Zoom bombing during one of its online services. (Google Maps)
With its doors closed due to the coronavirus pandemic, the church now has to safeguard its online audience as well.
“We have removed links for our services from social media and only give the links to our email list. We feel badly because we had been having visitors join our worship," Amico told the Christian Post. "Now folks have to contact us for the link and be vetted by how they know us."
In late March, the FBI’s Boston office issued a warning about teleconferencing hijacking.
“The FBI has received multiple reports of conferences being disrupted by pornographic and/or hate images and threatening language,” the FBI wrote last month.
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A spokesperson for Zoom told Fox News that the company has taken the security of its meetings seriously and was “deeply upset to hear about the incidents involving this type of attack.”
The company added that it encouraged users hosting large, public group meetings to review settings for their safety and report incidents to its support team so it could “take appropriate action.”
Fox News' Bradford Betz contributed to this report.
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