Meeting disrupted by racial epithets, porn

CROMWELL — The Board of Finance’s budget public hearing/workshop was derailed before it really began Wednesday night when the ZOOM system used to include the public in the discussion was hacked.

Superintendent of Schools Enza Macri was just beginning to introduce the Board of Education’s proposed $32.6 million budget when she was suddenly drown-out by a male voice shouting an obscenity.

Then, as a disembodied voice repeatedly endlessly chanted the n-word, crude videos of the Ku Klux Klan and even pornography flashed on the screen in the Town Council chambers that was supposed to be projecting Macri’s PowerPoint presentation.

Director of Finance Marianne Sylvester quickly broke the ZOOM connection and raised the screen, putting an end to the offensive intrusion.

As she did so, a staff member initiated steps to protect computers being used for the workshop.

The disturbing incident is just the latest example of what as been dubbed “ZOOM bombing,” malicious hacks into meetings, classes, and conferences that are occurring across the country.

The Middletown Board of Education meeting was similarly hacked on Tuesday.

ZOOM has become the go-to website for municipalities trying to hold virtual public meetings during the enforced quarantine as the coronavirus pandemics rages on.

But along with the increased popularity of the ZOOM has come hackers, intent on disrupting the meetings.

In a March 30 statement issued by the Boston office of the FBI, Agent Kristen Setera said the agency “has received multiple reports of conferences being disrupted by pornographic and/or hate images and threatening language.”

In one instance, the bureau said, an unidentified individual dialed into a Massachusetts classroom “where a teacher was conducting an online class.”

“The individual yelled a profanity and then shouted the teacher’s home address in the middle of the instruction,” the bureau reported.

But to encourage as much public input as possible, governmental agencies such as the finance board publish the telephone number and code that must be used to enter a ZOOM teleconference.

As a consequence, it is readily available to wouldbe hackers as well as citizens and taxpayers.

Following the hack Wednesday, Sylvester and Town Manager Anthony J. Salvatore tried unsuccessfully to see if the connection could be restored without further intrusion.

The meeting was adjourned and rescheduled for Monday night.

“We did report this incident electronically to the FBI,” Salvatore said Thursday.

Mayor Enzo Faienza and finance board Chairman Julius C. Neto, meanwhile, expressed their disgust with the hack.

Faienza described it as “unconscionable.”

“We’re trying to give people jobs, and instead we have this disgusting and appalling interruption. I’m ashamed right now. It’s disgusting,” he said.

Neto apologized to the Sylvester, the staff member and the board’s Recording Secretary Cynthia Hardacker for the rancid intrusion.

Breweries, wineries, restaurants, bars and private clubs can now deliver alcohol directly to consumers under Gov. Ned Lamont’s latest executive order, providing a new revenue stream for businesses closed due to coronavirus.

The order, issued Thursday night, takes effect immediately.

Phil Pappas, executive director of the Connecticut Brewers Guild, said the change is a sliver of good news in the midst of a crisis that has severely impacted the bottom line for breweries throughout the state, which mostly count on in-person sales in their taprooms. The executive order applies to sealed alcohol.

“We’re just looking forward to having that as an option for our breweries,” Pappas said Thursday night. “I see this as an opportunity for the breweries that have furloughed their barroom staff to bring them on to be delivery drivers and provide that much needed income for employees. I do foresee a lot of breweries taking advantage of this.”

A prior executive order allowed for curbside pickup at breweries, wineries and restaurants, but prohibited delivery.

It’s unclear how many bars that are now closed will reopen for deliveries only.