Pierluigi Paganini November 14, 2020

FBI and Spokane police are investigating an incident in which the Gonzaga University Black Student Union was hacked during a Zoom meeting.

The FBI and Spokane police are investigating the hack of Gonzaga University Black Student Union. The hackers broke into a Zoom meeting and bombarded participants with racial and homophobic slurs.

The attackers have hacked a virtual meeting among members of the Black Student Union, they broke into the call using offensive screen names and offending participants and sharing pornography on their screens.

“On Sunday, students of the BSU held a Zoom call to talk about the election, when several people joined the call with offensive screen names and began yelling racial and homophobic slurs and sharing pornography on their screens.” reads the article published by KXLY.

The media outlet revealed that the university has recently hired a therapist from the Black, Indigenous and People of Color (BIPOC) community to help BSU students.

Gonzaga’s leadership’s letter announced that its IT department were able to capture data of the Zoom-bombing, they were also able to identify the IP addresses of the hackers. According to the letter, the sources of that attack were associated with IP addresses both domestic and international.

Unfortunately, the number Zoom-bombings attacks surge since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic especially against schools and universities that are using the communication platform for remote learning and meetings.

Both the Spokane Police Department’s criminal investigation unit and the FBI are investigating the attack.

“We are deeply disheartened that we must identify ways to maintain safety and security in virtual meeting experiences, but that is a clear reality,” reads the letter from university leadership. “Students, clubs and organizations, and employees have been alerted to the safety features available through Zoom, as well as guidance on how to make meetings private.”

Pierluigi Paganini

(SecurityAffairs – hacking, Zoom-bombing)

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