Offensive ‘Zoombombing’ cancels online BI workshop

Published 1:30 am Thursday, July 27, 2023

Bainbridge Island was a victim of “Zoombombing” July 26.

It happened during the city’s Virtual Community Visioning Workshop for the Winslow Subarea Plan.

The web attack of porn pictures occurred a few minutes before the start of the meeting, which will be rescheduled.

A news release from the city says Zoombombing, sometimes called “gate-crashing,” is a type of cyber-harassment when a user, users or bots interrupt a meeting with malicious intent with an onslaught of offensive materials without the host’s permission.

“We are greatly disappointed this happened,” Planning and Community Development director Patricia Charnas said. “This was a regrettable outcome for a meeting many were looking forward to, especially after a great turnout at the in-person version last week.”

Charnas said LMN tried to make the meeting as “open, inclusive and easy as possible for islanders to participate in, which may have had unintended consequences on the Zoom platform.”

The city and LMN are investigating how it occurred so they can take action to prevent further attacks.

Even though the city and LMN quickly shut down the meeting, participants such as Ron Peltier said they saw too much. “Some things can’t be unseen,” he said.