Explicit material shown during city council meeting after Livestream hacked

By on Friday, January 13th, 2023 in More Top Stories Northeastern Oregon News

BAKER CITY – 𝐁𝐚𝐤𝐞𝐫 𝐂𝐢𝐭𝐲 𝐌𝐚𝐧𝐚𝐠𝐞𝐫 𝐉𝐨𝐧𝐚𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐧 𝐂𝐚𝐧𝐧𝐨𝐧 𝐡𝐚𝐬 𝐫𝐞𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐬𝐞𝐝 𝐚 𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐚𝐟𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐡𝐚𝐜𝐤𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝐰𝐞𝐫𝐞 𝐚𝐛𝐥𝐞 𝐭𝐨 𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐦 “𝐞𝐱𝐩𝐥𝐢𝐜𝐢𝐭 𝐦𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐚𝐥” 𝐝𝐮𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐚 𝐥𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐦 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐰𝐞𝐞𝐤’𝐬 𝐁𝐚𝐤𝐞𝐫 𝐂𝐢𝐭𝐲 𝐂𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐜𝐢𝐥 𝐦𝐞𝐞𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠.

“During the live stream of January 10, 2022, City Council Meeting Zoom was hacked. Efforts are made before every meeting to ensure the live stream channel is secure when setting up the Zoom meeting. Before the start of the meeting, the normal live stream software malfunctioned. The decision was made to live stream the meeting directly to the Baker City Facebook page. Although password protected, unique meeting ID, and all the security options checked, people joined the meeting with the intent to hijack the meeting. Staff hosting the livestream of the Council meeting were unaware the video and audio stream were no longer broadcasting the meeting. City Council and Staff were unable to see what content was shown. During the meeting, Chief Duby received a phone call from dispatch regarding the live stream content and notified the City Recorder regarding the explicit material shown in place of the Council meeting. The live stream was immediately shut down and removed from zoom and Facebook. The quick action of the City Recorder removed the explicit content as quickly as it was discovered.

Baker City is concerned with the cybersecurity of our meetings and the safety of our viewers. Baker City condemns this behavior and steps are in process to ensure this unfortunate incident does not happen again. “