CYBER SECURITY AND TRAUMA

And Then We Were Hacked With Porn

Not just any porn

I’m a psychotherapist. It’s difficult to shock me.

In fact, I often tell reticent clients, “You can’t tell me anything I haven’t heard, seen, or done.”

Until today.

On MuddyUm, where I’m an editor, we have so much fun in our editor meetings that our fearless leader, Susan Brearley, decided to host a Zoom-a-thon for our fundraiser for funds to support MuddyUm editors in need. We’re caring like that.

We’re an eclectic and motley crew. Some of us are computer semi-literate, and some are more savvy. In general, in spite of our individual traumas and tragedies, we each, and as a group, look at the world through a humor lens. We don’t punch down. We are what I call “compassionately humorous.”

Does that make us naive? Perhaps. Some of you reading may have been hacked on Zoom meetings before. Many of you have probably read about it in the news. I hadn’t.

Only one of us had been in a hacked meeting before, and fortunately she knew what to do afterwards to report. She told us it had happened early on with Zoom, even in elementary school classrooms. One of us had it happen in their child’s homeschool Zoom. I hope no children saw what we saw.

The hack started in a way that we at first thought was going to be humorous. The Zoom-a-thon was about performing funny stuff. What followed was so shocking that I can’t even remember why we thought the first intrusion might be leading up to funny.

That’s how brains and emotions work. When the trauma imprints on our brain, what came before is often blocked out.

The clue on our Zoom was when brief porn with two heterosexual people popped onto our screens. For a moment, we still thought someone might have thought it was funny to enter the meeting with that for the 10 seconds it lasted. Not what any of us would have considered funny of itself, but it was an open meeting, and humor has a broad spectrum, like any other “art.”

However, immediately a man’s distorted, threatening voice started mocking us. Their screen name changed from Joe Amber, to a variety Joes with different last names, including, at one point, Biden.

Before Susan, or any of us, could think of what to do, the next porn that flashed on our screens was child porn.

To say we were shocked doesn’t begin to cover the reactions. Sadness, anger, the need to do something, PTSD, shock, and a desire to move past the event were all normal reactions.

Although, as a therapist I know child porn exists, I had mercifully never seen it. I’ve had adult clients who were victims of sexual abuse including porn, and one CPS referred and court mandated client who went to jail for possessing it.

I had assiduously avoided viewing any of it in any form. I see no point in subjecting myself to what has already been vividly described to me by a grown-up survivor. It’s enough to carry the pain and horror of that in my head.

Today, someone took away the agency I had in deciding what I wanted to view. Even though the part of the video the hacker threw onscreen only lasted seconds, it was a violation to all of us. Worse, there were two children in the video who were the obvious victims.

Susan immediately ended the meeting stating she would start one with a lobby and requiring a password. For future reference, we now know that’s the best way to have a Zoom meeting, especially where you don’t know all of the participants.

We were also thrown into a whirlwind of deciding what to do. It was terrifying enough to know that child porn had flashed on all our screens, but also, it was being recorded. I pointed out to those who weren’t sure if or how to report, that we were required to do so. Holly Jahangiri provided us with all the avenues to report. Susan is reporting as I type, and the rest of us will do it today.

Being computer semi-literate myself, I don’t know if the authorities or Zoom can track this hacker. Maybe someone reading this will know how likely they are to be tracked down, and if it’s possible the children in the video can be found and rescued. I hope some of what I see on television shows and movies is real, and this evil fool who hacked a bunch of humor writers can be tracked and stopped. And the children can be found and rescued if the video is current, and receive help if it isn’t.

We all agree that since this type of hacking happens, we’re glad it happened to us. We’re writers, after all. Not simply humor writers, but writers who tackle all the evils and ills of the world in different publications and platforms.

We have the ability to educate, and each of us will.

Here are the actions to take and sources to access if you see or hear of child pornography or exploitation:

Cybertip.org is the website for the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. You can report online, or by phone at 800–843–5678.

Either can be anonymous. Even though their name says “National,” they cooperate with global authorities, and so anyone in any country can report there.

You should also report child pornography to your local authorities. Since this was a Zoom call, the host reported it to her local police.

In the U.S. you can report child pornography to the U.S. Customs office at 1-800-BE ALERT.

These are the actions you can take if your Zoom meeting is hacked:

Report all Zoom meeting hackings to Zoom support. You may also want to uninstall your Zoom apps temporarily.

In order to minimize the possibility of hacking when you host a meeting, set it up with a lobby/waiting room where people wait until you allow them in. Also, you can require a password.

Zoom provides access to online counseling for people who have been hacked and are experiencing trauma. Contact Zoom support to receive this service.

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