BBC reports that Singapore is suspending the use of video teaching through Zoom after an online class was hacked.
In the “very serious incident”, two caucasian men Zoom-bombed a school geography class with obscene images. The men also made “lewd” comments and asked the girls to “flash” them.
39 students were in the class when the stream was hacked. The class was immediately stopped after the incident.
Parents have expressed their concerned about the safety of online classes.
Authorities are uncertain as to how the hackers infiltrated the class but as long as one has the nine-digit ID, anyone in theory can join the video conference.
“Home-based learning is supposed to be a safe space,” one parent said. “I know it’s difficult to manage but as a parent I feel very concerned.”
Aaron Loh from the Singapore government’s educational technology division said they are taking the incident seriously.
“These are very serious incidents. The Ministry of Education is currently investigating both breaches and will lodge a police report if warranted,” Loh said.
Singapore will now suspend the use of Zoom for online teaching.
“As a precautionary measure, our teachers will suspend their use of Zoom until these security issues are ironed out,” he said, adding that the government had “spelt out to all our teachers the security measures they must adhere to.”
Zoom responded by saying, “we have been deeply upset to hear about these types of incidents. Zoom strongly condemns such behaviour and we encourage users to report any incidents of this kind directly to Zoom so we can take appropriate action.”
Singapore closed its schools last Wednesday amid the Coronavirus pandemic.
In related news, Bill Maher has defended calling Coronavirus ‘The Chinese Virus’.
