Zoom.com
By NANETTE LoBIONDO GALLOWAY
MARGATE – In an effort to promote transparency and after years of some residents complaining about the lack of online access to public meetings, the newly installed Board of Commissioners in May agreed to allow commission meetings to be broadcast on Zoom.
The two residents who attended the Thursday, Aug. 17 Zoom meeting, along with more than a dozen attendees in Commission Chambers, got an eye- and ear-full when a third person “Zoombombed” the online meeting with offensive imagery.
Zoombombing is a form of cyberattack in which a hacker or troll Zooms into a meeting to cause disruption, often with antisemitic or pornographic content. Intruders gain access through links and passcodes that are publicly posted on municipal websites or social media so people can easily gain access.
After viewing the offensive video on the oversized monitor on the walls on either side of the meeting room, all our Downbeach reporter could say was, “It’s a good thing there were no children in the room.”
One resident who regularly attends commission meetings in person just shook his head in frustration.
“What makes people do something like that,” he remarked.
Zoom participants are instructed to turn off their video and microphones, but the intruder abruptly turned on his video to reveal himself involved in a sex act.
Videoconferencing became a popular way for employers to continue business and governments to promote transparency during the pandemic, but people liked it and today Zoom boasts 10 million Zoom users daily.
The Police Department employee, a 26-year-old woman who was monitoring the meeting on a laptop computer, became immediately flustered and looked to her boss, Police Chief Matthew Hankinson on what to do. He instructed the meeting be immediately ended, which was unfortunate for the two people who were genuinely interested in viewing their government taking action on issues that affect them.
The Zoom meeting was not being recorded for future viewing on the city’s website so a record of the email address used by the offender to log in was not available. Instead, City Clerk Johanna Casey records audio of the meeting on her computer on the dais. That audio is posted for listening within a few days of the meeting.
Hankinson said there would be no way to determine the identity of the intruder because trolls Zoom into meetings using easy to download VPNs (virtual private networks) that encrypt data into untraceable forms.
“They bounce off VPNs and can be coming from other parts of the world,” Hankinson said. “It happens all the time.”
City engineer Ed Dennis said it is not the first time he has experienced an offensive intrusion at a public meeting.
“The first time I experienced it was at a meeting in Absecon,” he said.
Although the 5 p.m. workshop meeting was abruptly ended for Zoom users, the 6 p.m. regular portion of the twice-monthly meeting was also not Zoomed.
Mayor Michael Collins indicated the cyberattack would likely not deter public access to future commission meetings.
“This incident will be investigated, and our administrative team and our IT professionals will come up with a solution,” he said after the meeting.
Administrator Ken Mosca, who excused himself from the worksession for a few minutes after the incident, said he immediately contacted the city’s IT contractor, who will come up with ways to prevent it from happening in the future.
Zoom has established a suite of tools for hosts to control meeting access and recommends that hosts be thoroughly versed in precautionary measures that can be taken to minimize disruptions, such as requiring unique passcodes, enabling waiting rooms, disabling audio and video, managing screen sharing and authorizing attendance before the meeting starts.
Zoom Blog recommends hosts become thoroughly trained in meeting, chat, security and privacy to keep unwanted intrusions from happening on the platform.
All instances of Zoombombing should be reported to Zoom’s Trust and Safety team.
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