A government seminar hosted by the minister in the presidency for women, children, and people with disabilities, Maite Nkoane-Mashabane, was seemingly sabotaged on Wednesday. The seminar, hosted on the remote meeting tool, Zoom, was disrupted by hackers taking control of the shared screen and sharing pornographic images.
The webinar had been planned to discuss the effect of the Covid-19 pandemic on vulnerable members of society and was open to the public. According to a government spokesperson the meeting was made open to the public. About 400 people expressed their interest in attending, making it difficult to vet each attendee.
This is not the first time an instance of ‘zoom bombing’ has been reported. In March another webinar hosted by an American venture capitalist, Hunter Walk, had also been interrupted by hackers putting pornographic images on the shared screen.
Zoom, along with other remote meeting tools, has seen a very big increase in use, since a large proportion of the world’s population have been forced into lockdown as a result of the Covid-19 emergency.