At educational institutions, some students were 'actively asking strangers to Zoombomb or 'Zoom raid' their virtual classrooms to spice up their isolated lessons' and facilitating the raids by sharing passwords with the raiders. In various forums such as Discord and Reddit, efforts have been coordinated to disrupt Zoom sessions, while certain Twitter accounts advertise meeting ids and passwords or meeting links (allowing users to instantly join a Zoom meeting instead of entering the credentials required to access a meeting) for sessions that were vulnerable to being joined without authorization. The increased use of Zoom during the COVID-19 pandemic as an alternative to face-to-face meetings resulted in widespread exposure to hackers and Internet trolls, who exploit and work around the application's security features. The term 'Zoombombing' is derived from the teleconferencing application Zoom, though the term has also been used in reference to similar incidents on other teleconferencing platforms, such as WebEx or Skype. Incidents of Zoombombing have prompted law enforcement officers in various countries to investigate such cases and file criminal charges for those responsible.

In response, Zoom, citing the sudden influx of new users due to the COVID-19 pandemic, took measures to increase security of its teleconferencing application. Such incidents have resulted in increased scrutiny on Zoom as well as restrictions on usage of the platform by educational, corporate, and governmental institutions globally. Zoombombing has caused significant issues in particular for schools, companies, and organizations worldwide. The term became popularized in 2020 when the COVID-19 pandemic forced many people to stay at home, and videoconferencing came to be used on a large scale by businesses, schools, and social groups. The term is especially associated with and is derived from the name of the Zoom videoconferencing software program, but it has also been used to refer to the phenomenon on other video conferencing platforms.

In a typical Zoombombing incident, a teleconferencing session is hijacked by the insertion of material that is lewd, obscene, or racist in nature, typically resulting in the shutdown of the session. Zoombombing or Zoom raiding is the unwanted, disruptive intrusion, generally by Internet trolls, into a video-conference call. Internet meme portraying a Zoom meeting with an unwanted intrusion

Zoombombing examples