The rapid growth exposed a host of security and privacy flaws, including less-than-optimal encryption and the sharing of users’ personal data.

More than 300 million people used Zoom every day in April 2020, up from 10 million a day just five months earlier. Best known for often-pantsless corporate video conferencing, Zoom made working from home a little more palatable, bringing the faces and unkempt living rooms of co-workers together on one screen. Zoom became something of a household word during the pandemic. Rather, your families expect it - and they rightly assume that their loved one’s service will be broadcast clearly, uninterrupted … and free of pornography.

Livestreamed funeral services aren’t just a nice option for families these days. This time the Zoom was streamed on the city’s Facebook page and not by a funeral home - but the result was equally devastating. A male hacker’s voice, making vulgar and racist comments, including the n-word, drowned out a speech by the city’s mayor. In January the Zoomed funeral of Phoenix, Arizona vice-mayor and civil rights leader Calvin Goode was similarly interrupted.

“ gay pornography, naked women and SpongeBob calling the family the n-word,” said Joe Rivera, Linda’s husband of 42 years. Wiseman staff were able to cut off the feed to the funeral home’s monitors after about 30 seconds, but remote viewers around the world were subjected to the hackers’ content for about 20 minutes. Wiseman’s Zoom feed - and the Rivera homegoing service - had become the target of hackers. Instead, they saw screen after screen of porn images and cartoon characters spewing racial slurs. When family and friends logged into the Zoom livestream hosted by Wiseman Mortuary in Fayetteville, North Carolina they expected to see Linda Rivera’s funeral services.

Zoom bombe