The city of Afton, which has been holding council meetings on Zoom since the COVID-19 pandemic, had to shut down the online option for remote participation last week when a meeting was hijacked by hackers sharing pornographic videos.
City officials immediately tried to close out the videos, but “there were multiple sign-ins/people, so we could not get rid of them,” said Mayor Bill Palmquist. When they restarted the meeting, the videos came back after just a few minutes, Palmquist said.
“Unfortunately, we had to shut it down and just stop the feed,” he said. “I guess this has happened to other cities as well. It is very disappointing, to say the least.”
City officials have decided to stop using Zoom for council meetings and planning commission meetings “until we can ensure a secure remote access option,” he said. “We will do our best to get it back up and running again as soon as possible.”
The option to participate remotely has been “used and appreciated by residents” since it first became available a few years ago, Palmquist said.
The city council meetings will continue to be broadcast live, he said.
Palmquist said his “Spidey sense” went off when he noticed that 12 people had logged on to Zoom for the Aug. 19 council meeting instead of the “usual five or six.”
“It was pretty graphic and strange stuff,” he said. “You don’t need to see it for but a second to know that you need to stop it.”