Online feed of event with Fed's Cook hit with porn, Nazi images

By Michael S. Derby

(Reuters) - An internet stream of a speech at a university by Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook was hacked on Thursday as racist remarks, Nazi symbols and pornographic images peppered the viewing screen, prompting online access to be cut off.

Cook, the first Black woman to serve on the Fed's Board of Governors, appears to have continued delivering her in-person remarks at the University of Pittsburgh, but a later question-and-answer session with the audience was at least curtailed, a Fed spokesperson said. The interruption began several minutes into her delivery of her prepared remarks.

Cook is the second Fed governor to have been the subject of what has become known as "Zoom bombing," when a participant hijacks a virtual event and bombards the screen with offensive statements and imagery. A March 2023 virtual-only event featuring Governor Christopher Waller was forced to be canceled when porn images overwhelmed the screen.

(Reporting by Michael S. Derby; Editing by Daniel Wallis)