By Chloe Brown

Panther’s Tale

Two weeks ago, an announcement was made on the intercom informing students that suspicious emails with a link to a Google Document had been going around. The announcement warned students not to open the emails.

But why?

It was a virus.

This kind of hacking is called phishing. Derby Public Schools posted on Twitter an article explaining more about phishing. According to this article by vox.com, when clicking on the link, users are directed to Google’s login page, but after entering a password, they are taken to “malicious third-party site.” This is where the problem lies. If users do not realize this, they are tricked into giving their passwords to this website, which then sends the virus to all of their contacts.

The technology department received emails and call around 1:30 p.m. on May 3 about the phishing virus spreading around Derby. According to director of technology, Dennis Elledge, he was uncertain how many students and teachers received emails because Google quickly fixed the problem.

“We do not know how many students received the email or clicked on the link as Google, upon becoming aware of the incident, ran a process that cleaned up all of their servers before our team had time to run an in-depth analysis,” Elledge said. “While this incident was fast moving and widespread, Google’s response helped prevent it from being much worse.”

The technology department also took measures to protect students and teachers from the phishing attacks.

“Upon learning about this incident, the technology department implemented a counter measure to block and stop it for the entire district while working with Google support to clean systems already impacted,” Elledge said. “We continue to work with vendors to improve our protection and to look for alternatives and enhancements to those systems.”

Out of 222 Derby High School students surveyed, 52 said they had received one of these emails. Of those students, 12 said they clicked on the link to the virus. Those that clicked on the virus have been asked to change their passwords.

“Google has completely removed all traces of the malware, so other than changing passwords, nothing more needs to be done by students and staff,” Elledge said.

Although some students clicked on the virus, the technology department worked to minimize the amount of people that did.

“We try to provide as much information as possible as quickly as possible to attempt to minimize the impact it may have on our students, staff and systems,” Elledge said.