Zoom call with Utah elementary students hacked with pornography
(KUTV) – The Alpine School District is reassessing how it uses the video conferencing service Zoom after pornography was shown during a call with elementary school students.
RELATED: Here's how to secure your Zoom meetings
The incident happened Wednesday on a call with the principal of Pleasant Grove, Utah's Grovecrest Elementary School and around 50 students, district spokesperson Kimberly Bird told 2News.
Bird added that the principal was able to quickly shut the call down and the pornography and profanities were only visible for a few seconds.
"It would be a good idea to talk with your children who may have heard or seen what was shared. It is very sad that someone thought it funny to hack into our meeting and share some pretty horrible stuff, even for a few seconds," the school posted in a statement on its Facebook page.
The school had posted the meeting information on its Facebook page two hours prior to the call starting. The post included the meeting ID and a link to join.
Alpine School District administrators are meeting Thursday afternoon to assess how videoconferencing will be handled as the district continues online classes due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The district has referred the incident to the Pleasant Grove Police Department for investigation.
Hacking of Zoom calls or ‘Zoom-bombing’, as it is referred to, has been a huge problem in recent weeks as new users join the platform.
Zoom posted a video to its YouTube page with instructions on how to prevent Zoom bombing during conference calls.
Last week, a Zoom meeting with Utah Republican Party leaders was hacked and pornography was shown to all the participants.
Reporter Jeremy Harris is talking with state law enforcement officials about new warnings that have been issued to government and education leaders regarding Zoom calls. He will have that story on 2News at 10 p.m.
