Hackers disrupt virtual South African parliament meeting with porn

FILE – The South African Parliament during a briefing on the coronavirus on March 5, 2020 in Cape Town, as the first case of the virus has been detected in the country. (Photo by RODGER BOSCH / AFP)

Hackers on Thursday disrupted a virtual session of South Africa’s parliament, posting pornographic images in the second such incident since the coronavirus outbreak.

The “meeting was temporarily disrupted by so-called ‘bombers’ or hackers,” parliamentary spokesman Moloto Mothapo told AFP.

“But (it) continued afterwards on a different platform.”

The parliament of Africa’s most industrialized country, which has registered 7,808 coronavirus infections and 153 deaths, has been operating virtually as part of measures to fight COVID-19.

Pornographic images popped up a few minutes before the start of the Zoom meeting and then a male voice hurled sexist and racial insults at Speaker Thandi Modise, according to The Sowetan newspaper.

Modise adjourned the virtual meeting, which resumed shortly afterward on another platform.

Local publication News24 cited house chairman Cedric Frolick as saying that he was in discussions with MPs about getting a more secure platform.

A meeting convened last month by Minister for Women, Youth and Persons with Disability Maite Nkoana-Mashabane was also bombarded with pornographic material.