A hacker commandeered a Boscawen video feed to briefly play a sexually explicit cartoon video during a hybrid meeting this week.

The incident, which was quickly handled by town officials, marked the first time a town meeting in Boscawen had been “Zoom-bombed,” according to Town Administrator Katie Phelps, who was present.

The hack occurred just six minutes into a meeting on the revitalization of Commercial Street, which was attended by about a dozen people in person and several more online. 

In-person attendees gasped and laughed as the video of a cartoon individual engaging in a sex act played for about 15 seconds.

“What the heck is happening?” one person said.

“This is why we invest in good cyber security,” said another.

The town said in a statement on Friday that the situation “appears isolated” and that there is no apparent continued threat to any technical infrastructure.

After a brief pause and some technical improvisation, town leaders and consultants restarted the meeting without issue. 

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“The investigation is ongoing” and “the Town’s cybersecurity is intact and operating correctly,” the town said in its statement.

It has not been determined who was responsible.

Zoom-bombing incidents have become somewhat common occurrences at many municipal meetings in the wake of the pandemic, with the attacks taking a variety of forms.

In some cases, they are video hacks like the one experienced in Boscawen. In others, unidentified speakers harness the public comment period of meetings to spew epithets.

The incidents can be a challenge to prevent because municipal meetings must be publicly noticed.