US Fed Reserve Zoom Conference Canceled After Porn Bombing
On Thursday morning, Reuters reported that an event hosted by the Federal Reserve Zoom platform with over 220 attendees had to be canceled due to an incident involving a user named “Dan” that hijacked proceedings and displayed pornographic material.
As a result, Fed Governor Christopher Waller was unable to deliver his opening remarks due to graphic images from call participant “Dan” appearing on-screen.
Brent Tjarks, executive director of the Mid-Size Bank Coalition of America (MBCA), which hosted the Zoom event, issued a statement to Reuters saying: “We were unfortunate victims of teleconference or Zoom hijacking and are currently exploring ways to prevent it from occurring again. This incident is something we deeply regret; across all programs we have never had this happen to us before.”
Tjarks speculates that a security switch for the Zoom event, which would have muted users and prevented them from sharing their screens, may have been set incorrectly; however, he could not confirm this theory.
Minutes before its scheduled start time, the MBCA–whose members include banks with assets between $10 billion and $100 billion–made the decision to cancel due to “technical difficulties.” Waller was scheduled to discuss inflation and economic outlook into 2023 as well as take part in a question-and-answer session with members of MBCA.
A Zoom spokesman told Reuters the company “strongly condemns such behavior.”
These so-called Zoom-bombings became an issue during the pandemic of 2020 as more meetings shifted to video calls. This prompted the Justice Department to warn Zoom bombers they could face criminal prosecution if they hijacked a meeting with malicious intent. As such, both Zoom and Google eventually implemented features designed to prevent these unwanted takeovers.
If your meetings are being disrupted by unexpected visitors or inappropriate material, check out our guide on How to Prevent Zoom Bombing.