What's happening on UAT's campus- A blog published by UAT Students.

With most events, meetings, and classes are virtual now due to recent times. A lot of groups are using a virtual calling service called Zoom. This has led to some problems though. Bunch of teens who get bored who are just natural trolls have started things called Zoom "Bombing" or "Raids".  

It spread like a wildfire to the point the Department of Justice had to step in. Even the FBI (Federal Bureau of Investigation) had to take steps into these pranks. 

You may think why a prank is leading to Federal investigations. Well, the way to get into a Zoom meeting is sadly easy. There are two ways to get into a Zoom meeting and commit a "bombing". The first way is by searching up Zoom.us on google and social media sites. A lot of unlucky users will have their meetings set to "public". Due to this, it will show up as an announcement on a person's page. 

The second method is by guessing the most embarrassing ID code known to man. Zoom allows users to set a pin up to a 10-digit code using 0-9 numbers. Okay, so you have millions of users right now using it. There are 10 billion different possibilities that a session can be hosted using an ID. Hence how it is easy for people to "bomb" these calls.  

That is how this spread super quickly and how easy for a bored teen can just disrupt a call. It also spread to Reddit which was promptly taken down due to violating ToS (Terms of Service).  

Now, why has this upset the DoJ? Because these Zoom meetings where people are crashing can be a AA meeting, local government meetings, corporations' meetings. It can be anything and it can lead to security breaches of personal information. Luckily, these teens are just pulling pranks and not looking into stealing information or spreading ransomware. 

The DoJ states that there is a list of crimes that can follow by committing a Zoom Raid such as disrupting a public meeting, computer intrusion, using a computer to commit a crime, hate crimes, fraud, or transmitting threatening communications. 

"You think Zoom bombing is funny? Let's see how funny it is after you get arrested," said Matthew Schneider, United States Attorney for Eastern Michigan. 

This whole prank can be avoided if hosts of these sessions put their meetings in private and require a password. I think it’s a no-brainer to have security over some convenience. I have checked that recently Reddit has wiped most if not all Zoom raids forums as well Discord has followed suit to put a halt into servers rallying members. 

Just put a password on your meetings people.