Church worshippers were subjected to pictures of Nazi flags and videos of gay porn after pranksters hacked their Zoom call.
In a case of ‘Zoom-bombing’, something which has been seen frequently in 2020 due to the increase in video calling during the coronavirus pandemic, elderly members of the Worcester Diocese were left mortified.
A video posted to YouTube, which was later removed, showed their horrified responses to offensive content including a Nazi flag being shown on the screen while a voice repeatedly shouted ‘motherf*****s’.
They were also told to ‘convert to Islam’ before images showing four men engaging in a sex act also flashed up on their screen.
The Diocese has apologised to parishioners who witnessed the ‘unpleasant and distressing’ content and said they have now stepped up their online security measures.
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‘We are currently running a series of meetings on Zoom to enable people from our churches across Worcestershire and Dudley to become involved in the future plans for our Diocese,’ said a spokesperson.
‘Anyone is welcome to attend and although we keep a list, we don’t always know all those who have signed up.
‘Unfortunately at our meeting on Monday, several people were admitted who shared some offensive and disturbing content on both their profile pictures and in the chat line.
‘We removed a number of people immediately, but one remained undetected and therefore we took the decision to end the meeting.
‘As a result we have increased our security and changed our processes and are confident that all future meetings can go ahead without any further issues.
‘We held a meeting on Tuesday evening with no problems. We have apologised to all those who were present at Monday’s meeting and have offered the opportunity to speak to a member of our safeguarding team if anyone was distressed by what they saw.
‘Many of those present have already signed up to a future date. It wasn’t very pleasant for any of us who were there, but we’re confident that we’ve minimised the risk of it happening again.’
There has been an increase in ‘Zoom-bombing’ since lockdown forced companies to use the video conference app as more employees worked from home
It is a type of cyber-harassment in which an individual or a group of unwanted and uninvited users interrupt online meetings.
Intruders gatecrash gatherings, often for malicious purposes such as sharing pornographic or hate images or shouting offensive language.
To avoid interruptions, Zoom says meeting attendees must use a passcode and not their Personal Meeting ID, which would enable someone with their unique 10-digit number to join the meeting.
An additional protective feature is the waiting room, where the host must admit attendees. The company has recently added extra security measures to help prevent this from happening.
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