A hacker spewing racist comments and pornographic videos shut down a virtual meeting between New Jersey election officials and potential gubernatorial debate hosts, almost as soon as the discussion got underway on Thursday.
All was normal when the New Jersey Election Law Enforcement Commission (ELEC) called the meeting to order at 10 a.m., prepared to hear presentations from nine media sponsors vying for three hosting slots — two for debates between Republican Jack Ciattarelli and Democratic U.S. Rep. Mikie Sherrill, and a third between lieutenant governor hopefuls.
About 70 people were on the Zoom call, according to Politico.
The hack began about 10 minutes into the meeting as a series of alarms, ringtones and explosions interrupted presenters from news outlets WABC and WPVI. That quickly gave way to pornographic images, one including a swastika, as a photo of a naked man popped onto attendees’ screens.
A song simultaneously began blasting with a racist epithet as the refrain, Politico reported. A man’s voice then broke through saying, “Shut it down. Shut down the (expletive) meeting now, you (expletives),” according NJ Advance Media.
“It was disgusting and abhorrent language,” commission chairman Thomas Prol told PIX11 after the meeting abruptly ended.
“Internet hackers perpetrated a vile and shocking breach of public trust,” the commission said in a statement, calling for Gov. Phil Murphy and Attorney General Matthew Platkin to investigate the incident. “This was not simply an attack against ELEC, it was an attack against democracy and the people of New Jersey.”
Platkin confirmed to Politico that the state’s Division of Criminal Justice was on the case, and Prol said in a LinkedIn statement that the state had put its “top investigators” to work.
“You will not disrupt democracy in New Jersey,” he wrote, alluding to the hackers. “We will find you and prosecute you.”
With News Wire Services
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