Profanity and porn: NC schools grapple with ‘Zoombombers’ and hackers first week back
Hackers and so-called Zoombombers have trolled online classrooms in at least three North Carolina school districts this week, according to statements from school officials.
For most, Monday was the first day back.
Students at two high schools in Wake County and Lee County as well as one middle school in Forsyth County were exposed to profanities, “inappropriate gestures” and insults when their virtual classrooms were infiltrated by unwelcome participants — some of them fellow students in the school district, officials said.
Zoombombing — where hackers interrupt Zoom video chats with porn or violent images — has been happening since March, when the coronavirus pandemic forced schools, universities and companies online to quell the spread of the virus.
In May, the FBI asked for the public’s help identifying pedophiles who had hacked into Zoom calls to post child pornography, McClatchy News reported. The company said it was cracking down on security measures around the same time.
But the start of a new school year has presented its own set of problems.
Classes started Monday for most K-12 public schools in North Carolina — more than 70% of which have opted for online learning, The News & Observer reported.
They’ve been dogged by glitches with NCEdCloud, the system used for accessing PowerSchool and Canvas, twice in the last three days, according to The N&O. But some virtual classrooms have seen worse.
In Sanford, about 45 minutes southwest of Raleigh, a “non-student” gained access to an online class at Lee County High School on Monday, Lee County Schools spokesperson Sharon Spence told McClatchy News in a statement.
“This person shared inappropriate content and was removed from the meeting by the teacher as quickly as possible,” she said. “The incident was immediately reported to administrators and the school resource officer. It appears that this was an inadvertent approval of an outside address requesting access.”
Local law enforcement and the school district’s technology office are investigating, according to the statement. The school’s assistant principal also reportedly reached out to parents about the incident.
“We take the security of online classes very seriously and are reviewing all protocols with staff to make sure this does not happen again,” Spence said.
One parent told WRAL the incident occurred during her daughter’s 10th grade Spanish class. Shauna Roberts said the hacker showed Nazi symbols, porn and “videos of African Americans being shot,” the TV station reported.
“You could actually see parents coming into the camera seeing the content as well,” she told WRAL. “You could see a couple of parents actually making their kids move away from their computer so they could see what was going on.”
Officials at Millbrook Magnet High School in Raleigh said something similar happened to their students on Tuesday.
A group of students is accused of using “a single student account” to join a class on Google Meets, according to a statement. The students then reportedly “used inappropriate and offensive language as well as insulted students and teachers directly.”
At least 20 teachers at Millbrook were disrupted by their actions, officials said.
The teachers at Millbrook had published a link to their virtual classrooms on a single document that was sent to students, according to the statement. Officials compared it to how “students walk down the hall to their classroom,” but instead they “scrolled down the document to find their online course.”
Technology staff have since reset the accounts and prevented future unauthorized access, according to the school’s statement. The teachers have also sent out “their own specific, non-published Google Meet links.”
“Moving to more controlled Google Meets will greatly reduce the potential of disruptions like today from occurring,” officials said in the statement. “Both the Faculty and Administration at Millbrook are committed to ensuring the safety of students in every instructional setting. We are sorry that an outstanding start was negatively impacted by students’ actions today.”
A spokesperson for Wake County Schools did not immediately respond to a request for comment from McClatchy News regarding what security measures are in place and whether other schools have faced similar problems.
In Winston-Salem, a student is accused of Zoombombing a virtual art class at Southeast Middle School while “yelling obscenities and making inappropriate gestures,” according to a news release Tuesday. The teacher shut down the Zoom call immediately.
The student does not attend Southeast Middle School but is in the Winston-Salem/Forsyth County School District, officials said.
It was not immediately clear how the student will be punished, but the school district said it is investigating how the student was able to access the online classroom.
“WS/FCS does not condone disruptive or obscene behavior of any kind at school or during virtual class sessions,” officials said in the statement. “The district takes all such matters seriously and apologizes for the disruption.”
This story was originally published August 19, 2020 at 7:09 PM with the headline "Profanity and porn: NC schools grapple with ‘Zoombombers’ and hackers first week back."
