Syracuse University’s Information Technology Services has not received any reports of strangers disrupting online classes held via Zoom, an ITS security official said.

The disruptions, known as “Zoombombing,” have become a growing problem as the coronavirus forces universities to transition to online learning. The interruptions, sometimes involving harassment, have presented a unique challenge to teachers and professors who must now work to maintain control over a new type of classroom.

SU announced March 16 that it would move classes only for the remainder of the semester due to the coronavirus pandemic. The coronavirus causes COVID-19, a respiratory disease that has infected 597 people in Onondaga County and killed 17 as of Thursday.

ITS hadn’t received any reports of Zoombombing in SU’s online classes as of April 14, said Eric Ferguson, communications manager at ITS, in an email. ITS has provided faculty with preventative measures to avoid potential disruptions, including requiring passwords to join meetings, limiting screen sharing options and enabling a waiting room feature to approve participants before they can join a session.

Professors have always had the responsibility of maintaining security in their classrooms, said Shiu-Kai Chin, a professor of electrical engineering at SU who specializes in cybersecurity. Virtual settings, however, can make it more difficult for faculty to notice who enters and exits their classes, he said.

Zoombombing typically occurs when meeting participants share access codes over social media or private chats, either deliberately or unintentionally. The New York Times turned up hundreds of Instagram and Twitter accounts, as well as several message boards on Reddit and 4Chan, where users have shared meeting codes with the intent of disrupting virtual meetings.

“When we have a physical classroom, we can see people on-site. We can see what they are carrying. We could do all sorts of things to first identify that person,” Chin said. “Security means something different in this context.”

The speed of universities’ pivots to online instruction also lent itself to a rise in Zoombombing, Chin said. Many people, including professors, immediately turned to easy-to-use and readily available services like Zoom, even if those services weren’t designed with online classes in mind, he said.

Since the outbreak of COVID-19, Zoom has made adjustments to help counter future Zoombombing attempts. These include changing the service’s default settings to require a password from participants attempting to join a meeting.

“What this says is that they have tightened up security,” Chin said. “Because the biggest growth in their market presumably has been people like you and me doing online classes.”

Blackboard Collaborate Ultra — Blackboard’s video conferencing service — offers an alternative to professors concerned about class security on Zoom, Chin said. The platform only grants access to registered SU faculty, staff and students enrolled in a given course, and was designed with higher education in mind, he said.

ITS has encouraged faculty to use Blackboard Collaborate Ultra but understands some professors have personal preferences, Ferguson said.

Chin believes the anonymity that online services like Zoom offer is a possible factor behind the rise of Zoombombing. He observed something similar in his own class when he experimented with a tool that allowed students to draw on his lecture slides.

“They started writing, and some things I would not like to see presented in my class started appearing,” Chin said. “Does that mean my students are bad? Absolutely not. What it means is the relative anonymity releases some social norms.”

But Whitney Phillips, a professor in the College of Visual and Performing Arts who studies digital ethics, said anonymity may not be the real cause of Zoombombing and other types of online harassment.

More often, Phillips said, Zoombombers are trying to show off or otherwise fit into a certain peer group. Anonymity can enable abusive behavior, though, by allowing participants to more easily get away with it, she said

“Anonymity has a pretty bad reputation for encouraging antisocial behavior online; but there’s not much evidence that anonymity itself is why people act out,” Phillips said in an email. “The norms of the group come first and remind us that people make the choice to harm others; anonymity doesn’t make them do it.”

Users should also ask why digital platforms like Zoom allow their services to be abused so easily, Phillips said. This speaks to a systemic tolerance for identity-based violence within the tech industry, she said.

While the reasons for Zoombombing can vary, it’s more important to assess the outcomes than it is to assess the motives, Phillips said.

“Someone might Zoombomb because they think they’re being funny, or because they’re bored, or because they’re a violent white supremacist, or some combination,” Phillips said. “Regardless of why, those behaviors create a hostile, unsafe space for marginalized students — and our concern should be with the people who are harmed, first and foremost.”

Published on April 17, 2020 at 12:09 pm

Contact Chris: cjhippen@syr.edu