Authorities investigating 'Zoom-bombing' of Leechburg school board meeting

Schools, governing bodies and other organizations using teleconferencing software to hold online meetings during the coronavirus pandemic are facing a new form of cyber attack known as “Zoom-bombing.”

Leechburg Area School Board became the latest victim Wednesday night when someone participating in the board’s virtual meeting via the online platform Zoom shared a pornographic image, prompting officials to abruptly end the meeting. The meeting had not been rescheduled as of Thursday.

Board Secretary Patricia Tarr, who hosted the meeting, acted quickly to try to control the situation.

“What I did was stop them from sharing (more images) and then just started deleting participants as they arrived, in order,” Tarr said. “That was the only safeguard that I could come up with on the fly.”

Cases of Zoom-bombings are popping up across the country as more people turn to online meetings and online learning. Uninvited hackers get into online meetings and disrupt them with pornographic images, hate images and threatening language.

“We have been deeply upset to hear about these types of incident,” Zoom said in a statement. “Zoom strongly condemns such behavior and recently updated several features to help our users more easily protect their meetings.”

On Wednesday, the FBI reported that it had received nearly 200 reports over the past few months in which someone broadcast videos depicting child sexual abuse.

Catherine Policicchio, a spokeswoman for the FBI Pittsburgh field office, said several cases have been reported locally.

“None in our area have been prosecuted, but that’s not to say that they wouldn’t be,” Policicchio said, adding that the office does not comment on specific ongoing investigations.

People who engage in Zoom-bombing could be charged with state and federal crimes such as disrupting a public meeting, computer intrusion, using a computer to commit a crime, hate crimes, fraud or transmitting threatening communications, officials said.

Leechburg police Chief Jason Schaeffer said Superintendent Tiffany Nix notified him of the incident on Thursday. She didn’t respond to requests for comment.

Schaeffer said he will reach out to the state police computer crime unit for assistance in tracing the Leechburg Zoom-bomber’s internet protocol address. The police chief said this is the first time he’s dealt with a Zoom-bombing case.

“They have the computer capabilities that I do not,” Schaeffer said of the state police. “You need computer forensic people that know how to do that kind of thing.”

Armstrong County District Attorney Katie Charlton said Wednesday’s incident was the first case of Zoom-bombing she’s been made aware of in the county. She said she is prepared to prosecute anyone found to have engaged in such attacks.

Zoom has several security features that allow hosts to control what each person can do in a meeting. Hosts can disable video for everyone but them, prevent people from sharing images on their computer screen and enable a waiting room, the latter of which allows hosts to choose who can enter a meeting.

Tarr said she has had a number of safeguards in place when hosting meetings, including disabling sharing, muting people as soon as they join a meeting, enabling waiting rooms and allowing people in only by permission.

“I’ve placed all the safeguards in that I could,” Tarr said.

Wednesday’s Zoom-bomber found an opening, though, when Tarr enabled screen sharing so administrators could share presentations with board members and others attending the meeting.

“We’re doing our best by only allowing participants approved by me, but how do you determine (whether) a public participant is good or bad?” Tarr said.

On Wednesday, school board President Neill Brady suggested having future participants register by providing their full name, address and phone number.

The Pennsylvania School Boards Association, of which Leechburg Area is a member, has provided boards across the state with training and guidance on how to prevent unwanted and inappropriate disruptions during Zoom meetings, spokeswoman Annette Stevenson said.

“Whether conducted in person or virtually, the fact is, public school board meetings have the possibility of disruptive comments or behavior,” Stevenson said. “So it’s really just how the disruption or Zoom bomb is managed that’s key, and there are ways to do this using the technology’s features to its fullest.”