Hacker Tried to Bamboozle Virginia College Students
At about 1 A.M. last night, students at George Mason University in northern Virginia got an email that appeared to be from the school’s provost with the subject line “Election Day Update.” The election has been moved to Wednesday, it read, adding, “We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause you.”
About seven hours later, the real GMU provost emailed, assuring the school’s approximately 30,000 students that Election Day had not changed. A hacker had been responsible for the first message. The university spokesman tells the Washington Post the university has been fielding calls all morning from students and parents upset or confused. He also tells TPMmuckraker that campus police are working with outside law enforcement to look into the hoax.
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1 comments
Matt Jones
May 5, 2009, 7:38 p.m.
This isn’t the first time something has happened like this. Just recently UC San Diego sent out e-mails to people that were denied to the college, but the e-mail was confusing telling them that they had been accepted. You almost want to wonder if this was a hacker experience as well. If anyone has any information, I’m trying to put together a piece on my college blog.
Thanks,
Matt
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