“Zoombombing” occurs when an uninvited party joins a Zoom session to cause disruption. Often this disruption takes the form of profanity, hate speech, or pornography. This has happened several times to Zoom lectures within the past few days.

If you are the victim of Zoombombing, please report it by emailing the Security Operations Center (SOC) at security@ucsb.edu. Please include this information:

  1. A summary of what happened,
  2. The meeting ID of the session that was interrupted,
  3. The date and time of the incident,
  4. What action was taken (e.g., was the meeting halted, or was the intruder removed), and
  5. Indicate whether or not the session was recorded. If it was, please retain the recording if needed for an investigation. 

Zoom bombers often attempt to mask their identity, and some actively hide their true network address through obfuscation tools making it difficult or impossible to track them down. If you can identify the intruder during a session, you can remove them by hovering over the intruder’s name in the Zoom participant window, clicking “more,” and selecting remove. 

You can also take steps in advance of a session to make it harder for uninvited guests to break into your session, whether you're conducting a class or hosting a meeting. 

Become familiar with these settings and how they will affect your Zoom sessions. If you use Zoom for instruction, you can request support by submitting a help ticket to UCSB Support Desk Collaboration or emailing help@id.ucsb.edu. If you have technical questions about Zoom you can direct them to the ETS service desk online at ithelp.ucsb.edu or by phone to (805) 893-5000.

Sometimes Zoombombing disruptions include threats. If you receive threats during a Zoom session, please notify the UC police by calling (805) 893-3446. If you find that the disruption you experienced is upsetting, you can request assistance. Students may contact CAPS at caps.sa.ucsb.edu. Faculty and staff can contact ASAP at www.hr.ucsb.edu/asap.