WEST WILDWOOD – The Feb. 5 West Wildwood Borough Commission meeting ended abruptly, after cyber attackers flooded the Zoom session, spewing racist rhetoric and hateful speech, as well as using the online conferencing platform’s screen-sharing function to display pornographic content.
“It was a disgusting display, and I would like to apologize to all of our residents for having to go through that,” said Mayor Matthew Ksiazek, in an interview after the meeting.
During public comment, taxpayer Susan Czwalina was asking about printer fees, public works, and other borough–related issues when she was interrupted by Zoom bombers, who repeatedly chanted the N-word and made other racist demands targeting Blacks and Asians. Gay pornography was shown by one user. Homophobic slurs were also repeated, as Borough Clerk Donna Frederick scrambled to mute the intruders. It was a losing battle.
After more than a minute, the meeting was ended and restarted moments later, using the same login credentials. About four minutes passed before the cyber attackers returned, and the meeting was abruptly adjourned.
“It’s a major invasion of privacy and the business of the community… we have a new IT (information technology) service, and they are working on it,” said Ksiazek.
The IT service, Barber Consulting, was retained by commissioners in a resolution at the meeting to take over the borough’s IT services. Frederick said she spoke to the firm and expects meetings to continue through Zoom, with additional security measures.
