Virtual Events With Federal Reserve Governor Canceled After Zoom Hijacked By Pornography Charge Participants

Zoom Federal Reserve video conference, "blocked" by a participant featuring pornographic images. (photo: twitter @federalreserve)

JAKARTA - The virtual event, which will be attended by Federal Reserve Governor Christopher Waller, was canceled on Thursday 2 March after Zoom's video conference was "blocked" by a participant featuring pornographic images.

"We are victims of video conferencing or Zoom infiltration and we are trying to understand what we need to do in the future to prevent this from happening again. This is a very unfortunate incident," said Brent Tjarks, executive director of the Mid-Size Bank Coalition of America (MBCA), who hosted the event via Zoom link.

He said he suspected that one of the security switches silencing people watching the show was set wrong, but he was not sure about the details. The decision to cancel was made after consulting the Fed after the intrusion.

Minutes before the event began, one participant using the screen name "Dan" began displaying graphics images of pornography, according to a Reuters journalist who took part in the call. Microphones and videos were not silenced by the organizers when joining.

More than 220 participants were in Zoom's call at one point before it was finally canceled. Two spokespersons for Zoom did not immediately return a call asking for comment.

Zoom's use skyrocketed during the pandemic. The company has come under criticism for privacy and security concerns, including the "Zoom bombing" incident where uninvited users enter and interfere with meetings.

In March 2020, the Boston office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) issued a warning about Zoom, telling users not to make meetings on the site public or share links widely after receiving two reports about unknown people disrupting school sessions.

In response to the glitch, Zoom made a massive upgrade, including end-to-end encryption for video calls.

Fed said the event that would feature Waller's speech and a question and answer session was canceled due to "technical difficulties." Feds are usually highly correlated and their safety is usually tight.

MBCA members totaling about 100 people include banks with assets between 10 billion and 100 billion US dollars.