A Zoom conference with Federal Reserve Governor Christopher Waller was shut down Thursday after one attendee posted pornographic images that were visible to others through the call.
Minutes before the event began, one attendee nicknamed “Dan” began displaying graphic, pornographic images, according to a Reuters reporter, during a call.
The microphones and video weren’t muted by the organizer after joining.
Greater than 220 participants attended the Zoom call at one point before it ended.
The Fed said the event where Waller’s speech and Q&A session was scheduled to happen was canceled due to “technical difficulties”.
Fed events tend to be highly choreographed and security is generally tight.
MBCA’s roughly 100 members include banks with assets starting from $10 billion to $100 billion.
![Zoom released a statement condemning the incident and promising to investigate.](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/03/NYPICHPDPICT000007546471.jpg?w=1024)
“We have been the victim of a Zoom call or hijack, and we’re trying to understand what we’d like to do in the longer term to prevent this from happening again. That is an incident that we deeply regret,” said Brent Tjarks, executive director of the Mid-Size Bank Coalition of America (MBCA), which hosted the event via Zoom link.
“We had different programs and it never happened to us.”
Tjarks said he suspects one in every of the safety switches that mutes those watching the event was set incorrectly, but wasn’t sure of the main points.
The choice to cancel was made in consultation with the Fed following the hack.
“We were deeply concerned to hear about some of these incidents and Zoom strongly condemns this behavior,” Zoom spokesman Matt Nagel said. – it was written in a press release to Reuters.
“We take meeting disruptions very seriously and are working closely with law enforcement where appropriate.”
![The increasing reliance on Zoom for teleconferencing has led to the practice](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/03/NYPICHPDPICT000007117803.jpg?w=1024)
Zoom has grow to be a preferred teleconferencing method through the coronavirus pandemic as office closures have forced white-collar employees to work remotely.
Pranksters exploited loopholes within the system by organizing so-called “zoombombing” meetings using destructive methods corresponding to posting racist comments or showing vulgar content.
In March 2020, the Boston office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation issued a Zoom alert, telling users not to make site meetings public or share links widely after receiving two reports of unidentified individuals attacking school sessions.
In response to the disruption, Zoom has made major improvements, including end-to-end video call encryption.
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