Hacker blasts Bible study class with child porn, CA church says. Now it’s suing Zoom

Instead of Bible studies, a Zoom class of mostly seniors got an eyeful of “sickening” porn when a hacker infiltrated their call, a federal lawsuit says.

Saint Paulus Lutheran Church of San Francisco filed a proposed class-action suit Wednesday against Zoom over the May 6 hack, accusing the app-maker of failing to close security holes.

The suit says that a hacker took over the Zoom app about 42 minutes into a weekly Bible study class attended mostly by seniors. Attendees were unable to close or minimize their screens or eject the intruder as they were bombarded by porn, the complaint says.

“The footages were sick and sickening — portraying adults engaging in sex acts with each other and performing sex acts on infants and children, in addition to physically abusing them,” says the lawsuit.

Class members logged off the app, but when they restarted the video conference, the hacker returned with more porn, according to the complaint.

When the church contacted Zoom, the company said the hacker was a “known serial offender” who had been reported to authorities and ejected from the app, the suit says.

The complaint says Zoom offered no help in preventing future attacks, only “empty words, in a blog-posted ‘apology.’”

The suit accuses Zoom of negligence, breach of implied contract and violations of the California Consumer Privacy Act. It also says the company’s actions “violated” the sanctity of the church.

It seeks “equitable relief” from the company on behalf of the church and others who have been “zoombombed” by hackers on the app.

Zoom did not immediately reply to a request for comment on the lawsuit.

Similar attacks have been reported across the United States as companies and others turn to Zoom for remote meetings during coronavirus lockdowns, The New York Times reported.

On Sunday, hackers hijacked a Zoom service held by the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship in Waco, Texas, with porn, McClatchy News reported.

In early May, Zoom pledged to New York Attorney General Letitia James to do more to prevent hackers from intruding on video conferences, McClatchy News previously reported. The company said it plans to roll out a “more robust” encryption setup later this month.

This story was originally published May 14, 2020 at 8:47 AM with the headline "Hacker blasts Bible study class with child porn, CA church says. Now it’s suing Zoom."