The hearing was shut down within 25 minutes after being Zoom bombed.
The court hearing of Graham Ivan Clark, the alleged mastermind behind the massive Twitter hack was zoomboobed today by hackers who ended up disrupting the online proceedings with loud music and a pornography video from Pornhub.
The incident is one of many examples of zoom hacking or zoom bombing that took place in the last few months after working from home orders amid Coronavirus lockdown. For this reason, specifically, the court hearing was set up online through Zoom.
See: How hackers behind Twitter Bitcoin scam were caught
Reportedly, the hackers impersonated BBC and CNN reporters to participate in the online court session. The mistake on the judge’s behalf was not restricting users from overtly taking over the screen.
Here is a video showing what happened and reaction from Hillsborough County Judge Christopher Nash:
Ayooooooo!!! Hacker from my city peep the live stream!!! #Hacker #HackerTampa 😂😂😂 @KEEMSTAR enjoy !! pic.twitter.com/qh1OjwPaKb
— JayCesar sB (@JayCesar_sB) August 5, 2020
Jen Wieczner, senior writer at Fortune Magazine was also present at the online court session. Wieczner confirmed that Clark’s virtual hearing was shut down within 25 minutes due to Zoombombing.
Well perhaps unsurprisingly the accused Twitter hacker-Bitcoin thief’s first (virtual) hearing was shut down within 25 minutes due to relentless Zoombombing. (It ended a minute after this when someone screenshared a Porn Hub video.) pic.twitter.com/fGiceq4WfN
— Jen Wieczner (@jenwieczner) August 5, 2020
According to cybersecurity journalist Brian Krebs, the Zoom hearing was bombed multiple times, with the final bombing of a pornhub clip ending the zoom portion of the proceedings.
How the judge in charge of the proceeding didn’t think to enable settings that would prevent people from taking over the screen is beyond me. My guess is he didn’t know he could, Krebs said in a tweet.
It is worth noting that Clark was arrested from Tampa, Florida, and charged with several cybercrimes including hacking into Twitter’s internal system on July 15th, 2020 and compromise accounts of top celebrities and companies including Apple, Coinbase, Elon Musk, Barak Obama, Kim Kardashian, Kanye West, and Bill Gates, etc.
The hackers used the hacked Twitter accounts to carry out a large scale Bitcoin scam and rake in more than £80,000/$100,000. According to Twitter, the hackers targeted its employees with a spear-phone phishing scam to steal their login credentials.
See: Hackers deface church service on Zoom with child abuse content
As for Zoomboming, this is not the first time when attackers have hacked into a Zoom meeting with x-rated, malicious, and racist content. A couple of weeks ago, an online Jewish service was not only Zoom bombed but also defaced with hate speech and Swastikas.
In another incident, hackers yelled racist slurs along with displaying Nazi flag and x-rated images during California’s Valley Transportation Authority Board of Directors’ Zoom meeting.
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