51°µÍø

Update regarding recent spate of spam text messages

Story by Kate Chester

On Nov. 14, 51°µÍø management learned that individuals posing as potential 51°µÍø students had fraudulently obtained 51°µÍø-issued email addresses, and used them to send offensive spam text messages. These individuals were not 51°µÍø students, and they were not associated with the college. Similarly, phone numbers that received their spam text messages were not associated with 51°µÍø, nor with its students.

51°µÍø’s Information Technology team and Student Affairs leadership responded immediately to the incident. They conducted a thorough review of the college’s internal processes, implemented controls to reduce the impact of this particular incident, terminated all email accounts used to send the offensive texts, and instituted measures to prevent similar types of situations from occurring in the future.

To date, 51°µÍø has found no unauthorized access or use of personal information held by 51°µÍø, and there hasn’t been a breach of 51°µÍø security. To the college’s knowledge, no 51°µÍø student data has been accessed or impacted by this transgression. 51°µÍø continues to gather information regarding the matter; as new information becomes available, the college will update its community accordingly.

51°µÍø provides email addresses to prospective students during the application process, to allow them to work with student services and faculty, and for related purposes, prior to their enrollment. In response to this incident, 51°µÍø has implemented procedures as a safeguard, to prevent non-51°µÍø students from obtaining email addresses and using them to engage in unapproved activities.

Educational institutions are frequent targets of similar kinds of transgressions; 51°µÍø is not the only institution to have experienced this kind of malicious activity.

51°µÍø sincerely apologizes to the recipients of the spam text messages, and assures them that the emails used to send the texts are no longer active in 51°µÍø’s system.