FBI wants your help finding hackers who are bombarding Zoom meetings with child porn
The FBI is asking for the public’s help to identify pedophiles who are hacking into Zoom video calls and showing child pornography.
The agency said it has received more than 240 reports over the past few months “of incidents throughout the U.S. and in other countries in which a Zoom participant was able to broadcast a video depicting child sexual abuse material.”
On Wednesday, the FBI released a notice along with an online questionnaire for people who have experienced Zoom calls hacked with child porn.
“The FBI considers this activity to be a violent crime, as every time child sexual abuse material is viewed, the depicted child is revictimized,” the agency said. “Furthermore, anyone who inadvertently sees child sexual abuse material depicted during a virtual event is potentially a victim as well.”
“Zoombombing” has become more common during the COVID-19 pandemic as businesses and schools have moved online.
Chipotle was hosting a Zoom call in March with musician Lauv when someone started showing pornography, The New York Times reported.
Earlier this month in Minneapolis, hackers broke into a neighborhood group’s video conference and displayed child pornography, the Star Tribune reported. Police were investigating the case.
After a handful of cases were reported in the Pittsburgh area, FBI Supervisory Special Agent Tim Wolford spoke with KDKA about how people attending Zoom meetings could end up unwillingly possessing child pornography.
“If you are a host or administrator of a Zoom meeting where this has happened, you need to make sure you reach out to us and notify us immediately,” Wolford told the station. “Don’t delete any content or log off of your computer. It helps our investigation if we are able to collect that information.”
The FBI released steps you can follow if you have been a victim of such a Zoom hacking:
Contact the FBI immediately and do not delete any computer logs.
If you recorded the hacked broadcast, contact the FBI for help removing the video from your computer.
If you know who is behind the hacking, contact the FBI.
They also released steps that may prevent other incidents:
Do not make Zoom meetings public. Require a password or use the waiting room feature.
Do not share the link to the meeting on a publicly available post. Instead, email the attendees privately with the link.
Change the screen-sharing setting to “Host Only.”
This story was originally published May 28, 2020 at 3:16 PM with the headline "FBI wants your help finding hackers who are bombarding Zoom meetings with child porn."