April 27, 2020 -- Westchester County District Attorney Anthony A. Scarpino, Jr. and the Westchester Jewish Council hosted a video roundtable Monday morning 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.
Lisa Roberts, President of the WJC, opened the program and WJC CEO Elliot Forchheimer moderated. In his opening remarks, DA 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.
“We are grateful for our ongoing partnership with District Attorney Scarpino and his entire staff,” said Ms. Roberts. “The relationship the Council has built with the DA’s office has enabled us to share resources and communicate critical information back and forth as we work together to secure the safety of our Jewish community.”
On today’s panel, DA Scarpino was joined by several senior staff: William E. Schaeffer, Second Deputy District Attorney, Investigations Division Chief; Andrew Ludlum, Acting Director of the Westchester Intelligence Center; Assistant District Attorney Susan Brownbill-Vega, Director of Community Affairs and Head of the Hate Crimes Unit; Assistant District Attorney Michael Delohery, Cybercrime Bureau Chief; and Criminal Investigator Andy Grascia.
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.
The DA panel reminded attendees and the public to report any potential crime to local police agencies. They will work with the DA’s Office to investigate the potential crime.
In addition, 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 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.
Information about the two zoom-bombing incidents.
