Historical Commission virtual meeting infiltrated by Zoom bombers

The Waltham Historical Commission’s Nov. 10 meeting was infiltrated by Zoom bombers who played profane audio and screen shared pornography to meeting participants. 

The meeting was stopped shortly after the Zoom bomb began and restarted soon after.

Zoom bombing is an international phenomenon where a person or group of people enter a virtual video meeting and disrupt the meeting by playing loud audio, screen sharing inappropriate video or putting inappropriate content in the chat. Zoom bombing has happened previously at municipal government meetings in Waltham, most notably during a late 2020 meeting regarding a string of violent attacks earlier in 2020.

Zoom bombings are much less common now than they were during COVID, according to Richard F. Forno, associate director of the Cybersecurity Institute at the University of Maryland Baltimore County. He himself has been in a meeting where there was a Zoom bombing via the Zoom chat feature. “Proper setup when scheduling meetings is often the best way to prevent such incidents,” Forno said in an email to The Waltham Times. 

Forno advises that Zoom meetings be set up so that participants are automatically muted when they enter. Additionally, he said there should be a qualified person in the meeting to moderate by stepping in to fix any technical issues or muting someone who ‘goes off the rails.”

The FBI advises that Zoom hosts use passcode entry and waiting room features as well as changing screen sharing to “Host Only” as preventative measures as well. 

Zoom bombing incidents can be reported to the FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center. 

According to the Waltham Historical Commission, the incident was reported to Zoom technical support and the city’s IT department has been informed of the attack so that IT staffers are able to make a report to authorities if they choose. Additionally, host-only sharing will be employed going forward.