WHITE PLAINS – Westchester County District Attorney Anthony Scarpino, Jr. and the Westchester Jewish Council held a video roundtable Monday focused on recent anti-Semitic Zoom-bombing incidents and strengthening online security. More than 50 participants, many involved with Jewish center security teams, took part in the presentation.
Scarpino reiterated his concerns that any incident against a religious group is a high priority for this office.
“We continue to work with all community groups, local police, and other agencies to stop hate from spreading, to investigate aggressively and to prosecute the perpetrators. Hate has no place in Westchester,” DA Scarpino said.
During the conference, it was explained that the Westchester Intelligence Center continues to actively monitor alerts and works closely with the Anti-Defamation League on potential anti-Semitic threats or incidents. In addition, the DA’s Office Cybercrime Bureau and Criminal Investigators review video recordings of virtual events and other evidence. The next step is to obtain grand jury subpoenas issued to the service providers, obtain search warrants where needed, and execute those warrants to individuals or businesses. As they narrow the focus on who may have committed the cyber incident, the prosecutors work with the Hate Crime Unit to weigh what charges may be imposed once a suspect is targeted.
Experts shared the following best practices for safe and secure video conferences:
- Always record the presentations
- Always issue passwords
- If using Zoom, upgrade to newly released version 5
- Hosts should monitor attendees
- Hosts can remove attendees
Organizers reminded attendees of the ADL, working with the Zoom platform experts, has published best practices in using Zoom video conferencing software. Visit the ADL website for more information.
