Watch out! Hackers are bombing Zoom classes with porn

Just recently, a school in Chandigarh, which started using Zoom for online classes, witnessed a session hack.

Their teacher was about to begin a lecture on reproduction for about 45 of her Class X students.

But, as she locked the conference and stepped out to check her audio/video quality, a pornographic film started playing on a student's screen out of nowhere.

At first, the teacher, who was still new to Zoom, did not realize what was happening, but when she noticed, it was already a few minutes before the session could end.

Later, when the school got in touch with the student whose screen played the adult content, they refuted any involvement, noting that their father was also present when the incident took place.

While the school decided against reporting the incident to the police, cybercrime experts suggest that this was a typical case of Zoom bombing, where an unknown party from outside gatecrashes a Zoom meeting.

Several instances of Zoom-bombings have been reported in the past, with attackers hijacking (and disrupting) meetings by drawing offensive imagery, playing porn, sharing personal information of participants or making hate comments.

Apart from this, schools in Delhi have also reported instances of Zoom sessions being hijacked.

The complaints largely revolved around the use of abusive and threatening language by the students using pseudo names, said MS Rawat, general secretary, Action Committee Unaided Recognized Private Schools, Delhi.

"They used to create panic during the online class, forcing the teacher to end the session abruptly," he added.

Owing to this, and several other privacy-related debacles, the Union Home Ministry of India has already advised officials/citizens against using Zoom, noting that it is not safe.

The government of Singapore has also asked schools to refrain from using the service in the wake of several cases of video session hacks, where attackers targeted teachers and students with obscene imagery and lewd comments.

That said, with the problem of Zoom-bombing, the situation demands a clear and secure way for online classes.

Joseph Emmanuel, the Director of Academics at CBSE, told HuffPost that they have recommended online coaching to affiliated schools but not the medium, as the schools cannot afford it.

Schools should use YouTube and WhatsApp groups to connect and teach students during the lockdown, he added.