‘Zoom bombers’ crash online classes as Miami-Dade schools adapt to online learning

Shawn Beightol was winding down his chemistry class’ Zoom video conference session on Wednesday when someone named “Joe Martinez” entered the chat.

Beightol, a teacher at John A. Ferguson Senior High in southwest Miami-Dade, didn’t have anyone by that name on his roster. “Martinez” didn’t have his video camera on, but he started insulting Beightol. Then the profanity got worse.

“I suddenly realize I’m being Zoom bombed,” Beightol said.

As schools across the nation experiment with remote, online learning while the coronavirus pandemic shutters schools, educators and students are realizing its limitations and unintended consequences. Many schools have used Zoom, a video conferencing platform, to teach classes. Some digital trespassers “Zoom bomb” these video chat sessions by entering a conference they weren’t invited to and disrupting or hijacking the session.

Some Zoom bombing can be harmless, like when one of Beightol’s students changed her background to a silly photo she took of him in class. Beightol and his students chuckled at that. But other examples have been disruptive or even possibly criminal.

There have been media reports of Zoom calls being hacked at universities, schools, churches and political conferences. Disrupters post pornographic images or racial slurs to antagonize the chat. The FBI has gotten involved.

Teacher training

All teachers in Miami-Dade County Public Schools participated in two days of training, which included Internet safety protocols, according to spokeswoman Jackie Calzadilla. She said the district is preparing “an updated version of our FAQs that will feature some of this language in regards to Zoom and how to best avoid ‘Zoom bombing.’ ”

Calzadilla said the district’s systems are protected because they are portal-accessed within an ID- and password-protected network that filters and blocks inappropriate content. The district purchased the enterprise version of Zoom through Microsoft Teams and urged parents and students to uninstall any previous versions of Zoom for a more secure experience.

“We need to keep in mind that Internet sites beyond our domain require parental supervision and with students being online now more than ever, it is critical for parents to be vigilant to ensure online safety,” she wrote in an email.

Beightol, who uses Zoom through Microsoft Teams, let his administrators know about the Zoom bomb. They’re looking into who might’ve been the intruder for possible disciplinary action. Then Beightol wrote up a post with some tips on how to avoid being Zoom bombed, like instituting a “waiting room” to individually approve users into the chat and disabling the ability to change their screen background, that he emailed to his colleagues and shared on Facebook.

Not an isolated incident

The issue appears to be widespread among teachers in the district. An IT specialist with MDCPS posted on a workplace Facebook page asking teachers to secure their video conferencing sessions with a strong password.

“As teachers and students rely on #distancelearning more than ever now during the crisis, there are malicious actors looking to take advantage of the situation in any way possible,” he wrote. “They are now targeting collaboration/videoconferencing services by guessing the meeting links and doing inappropriate things.”

“It’s just too easy to scam the system right now,” Beightol said. “Everybody treats these kids like they’re delicate little flowers — they’re not. These kids are so smart. They’re so skilled. They grew up with this technology in their hand from the bed, from the crib.”

One of Beightol’s colleagues, a U.S. history and Advanced Placement human geography teacher, had a similar experience.

Also on Wednesday, Aaron Hamid was using Zoom for his AP human geography class when someone named “Nick Gher” — code for a racial epithet — entered the video conference. The new arrival had a high-pitched distorted voice and began talking over everyone.

“I assumed they were a little more mature than the underclassmen, but I assumed wrong,” Hamid said.

Hamid and Beightol both share the same theory about how their classes were hijacked: A student sent the unique link and login credentials to his class’ Zoom session to a friend, who interrupted the class.

“It’s like the trolls on newspaper articles. They’ve got nothing better to do,” Beightol said. “And unfortunately we have professional Zoom bombers that this is entertaining for them, perhaps.”