PROVIDENCE – Brown University experienced a hack of its bulk email service on March 12 where the names and email addresses of recipients were extracted from the service, Brown Interim Chief Digital and Information Officer John Spadro said Wednesday.
Spadro in a message to the campus community said access was gained by an unauthorized user who intended to send unauthorized emails to addresses within Brown’s account. He said Brown changed its compromised account’s password and prevented spam messages from being distributed into Brown-related emails.
But Spadro said some recipients may receive spam messages from accounts pretending to be Brown senders or from other email addresses. He suggested the Brown community avoid clicking on suspicious emails or from unrecognizable senders.
Other than the names associated with the recipient email addresses, no other information or other university electronic assets were accessed, Spadro said. Additionally, he said Brown was already retiring its use of the bulk email service and it will no longer be used.
“We have taken all immediate steps possible to address this issue, and we encourage you simply to delete any messages you might receive with questionable content,” Spadro said.
It is unclear if the university identified who was responsible for the hack. Brown University representatives did not immediately respond Wednesday to a request for comment.
James Bessette is the PBN special projects editor, and also covers the nonprofit and education sectors. You may reach him at Bessette@PBN.com. You may also follow him on Twitter at @James_Bessette.
