With expletives and racial slurs, ‘Zoom bombers’ hit Kansas City Council meeting
Hackers repeating expletives and racial slurs briefly derailed a Kansas City Council committee meeting Tuesday, forcing members to hang up and switch video conference platforms.
Since the novel coronavirus began shutting down group gatherings and businesses, the City Council has been running its meetings with some members at City Hall and others joining remotely.
On Tuesday, two committees were meeting jointly to discuss traffic, pedestrian and bicycle safety when suddenly another voice interrupted Councilwoman Katheryn Shields, who had called into the meeting from home.
“Hello,” the individual said.
A few seconds later, the person said, “test,” and began speaking in a foreign language, catching the attention of the committee and city staffers.
Councilwoman Teresa Loar, who was presiding from the City Council chamber, interjected to say there was an audio problem. Members paused briefly, and speaking English, the apparent hacker said, “From Ukraine, hello.”
The hacker or hackers then repeated the F-word and the N-word until the city hung up the Zoom call to remove them. After a few minutes, the committee meeting resumed via Skype.
Such “Zoom bombings” are ever present as much of the world conducts its business from home to limit the spread of COVID-19. The University of Missouri and Kansas State University recently reported hacked classes and meetings. Kansas City tech companies say they have been working to secure remote setups for small businesses.
In a statement, city spokesman Chris Hernandez apologized for the profanity.
“We were aware that hackers have been hunting for Zoom meetings to bomb, but were using the platform because it provides easy ways for the public to participate in the meetings with real-time public comments,” Hernandez said.
But he said none of the video conference platforms would allow council members inside and outside the chamber to see and hear one another, provide for presentations and testimony, broadcast all of that on the city’s Channel 2 — “all without some risk of hacking.”
“However, we also realize that hacking is simply the online equivalent of a person walking up to a microphone during an open comment period of any public meeting and speaking profanities for all to hear, which has happened in the past as well,” Hernandez said. “We will continue to provide ways for the public to remain engaged in our city meetings, while doing our best to prevent events such as this.”
Hernandez said he didn’t think there was any way for the city to know how the hackers accessed the meeting, which was a joint session of two committees — Finance, Governance and Public Safety and Transportation, Infrastructure and Operations.
To allow public testimony, the City Clerk’s Office has been posting video conference links publicly online. But Hernandez said it was his understanding that hackers search far and wide for meetings.
“So it may have been completely random,” he said.
In a statement, Zoom said it had taken several steps to prevent such situations.
“We have been deeply upset to hear about these types of incidents,” the statement said. “Zoom strongly condemns such behavior and recently updated several features to help our users more easily protect their meetings.”
According to the statement, the company enabled meeting passwords and “virtual waiting rooms” on its free and low-level subscriptions and tweaked the layout to prevent unintended sharing of Zoom links. The company also added a new security icon, according to the statement, to help hosts quickly remove participants and lock meetings. The newest version of the software also allows meeting hosts to report users.
The company’s CEO, Eric Yuan is hosting a weekly “privacy and security webinar.”
“We encourage users to report any incidents of this kind either to Zoom so we can take appropriate action or directly to law enforcement authorities,” the statement said.
