More than 10,000 emails were sent to students with the New Haven Public Schools system in what officials are calling a “sophisticated phishing attack” that targeted the district.
The attack came after accounts belonging to at least four students were compromised, laying the groundwork for hackers to send mass emails to more than half of the student body, school officials said in a notice to students and families on Wednesday.
According to school officials, “well over” 10,000 emails were sent to students. Almost all of them went to multiple recipients at once and were designed to phish for bank information.
School officials believe more than 1,000 students — making up about 10% of the student body — opened and read the emails.
“While it is impossible to currently track exactly how many students submitted data, we have received reports indicating that some students did fill out the fraudulent forms,” the district wrote. “This puts those students and their families at immediate financial risk.”
Officials are warning students and advising them to delete any suspicious emails asking for personal or financial information.
“They should not click any links,” school officials said.
Anyone who already divulged personal information during the attack is advised to contact the district’s IT Department.
“You should alert any financial institutions where an account could be compromised,” the district added.
Accounts belonging to students who were affected may require a “forced password” reset, according to officials.
“Our IT department is working to scrub these emails from inboxes and secure the compromised accounts,” the district said.