Racist threats shouted out after someone breached online class in Snohomish School District

SNOHOMISH- Husky football analyst for Q13 and former UW tailback Terry Hollimon is also a dad.

On Facebook, he wrote that someone hacked into his daughter’s Zoom class on Monday and shouted a racial slur and said black lives don’t matter.

The Snohomish School District says they are reaching out to all of the families who had to experience the racist attack and they are updating their online instructions to prevent incidents like this.

“Our district cannot be silent on the issue of racism and it is our responsibility to help end this injustice,” Spokesperson Kristin Foley said.

The latest Zoom bombing follows another one that Q13 News reported earlier in the month when someone repeatedly entered an online classroom and said vulgar things to the students at the Peninsula School District.

 Cyber security expert Barbara Endicott Popovsky is also a professor at the University of Washington. She is currently working with other colleges to find solutions to the growing problem with so many working and learning from home.

“There are vulnerabilities on Zoom this is why people who use Zoom, a very convenient application, implement the security applications that require passwords that can limit who can get into a classroom,” Popovsky said.

Teachers can also prevent others from sharing the screen on Zoom and use things like wait rooms to screen people before they are let in.

The Snohomish School District says they are investigating exactly what happened.

At this time, it’s unclear if the teacher in the latest case took those steps and a hacker managed to still bypass them anyway.

Although school districts have IT departments, Popovsky says additional resources could be helpful.

“I would recommend professional organizations I am thinking of the Cloud Security Alliance, ISACA, ISSA,” Popovsky said.

She also says schools should tap into parents with tech experience.

“I would form a committee of parents with technical backgrounds who can help advise the school itself,” Popovsky said.

The more layers of protection, the better, with so many bad actors online.