St George's University email list breached with messages claiming board involved in 'child pornography sting'
The Metropolitan police has been called in after computer hackers gained access to a London university medical database, sending a string of expletive-laden emails to hundreds of its users.
Unidentified hackers sent emails last week pretending that members of the university's executive board were involved in a "recent child pornography sting" and warned the database was "closed due to Aids".
The database, which is run by St George's University of London medical school, is an online directory for doctors and nurses across the UK. It does not hold medical records.
The Met and the university have launched separate investigations into the attack on the Primary Care Electronic Library [PCEL] database.
A spokeswoman for St George's University confirmed to the Guardian that the email list had been "compromised" by hackers and described the emails as "extremely offensive and unfounded".
"A number of unsolicited emails were consequently sent to members of the list. We are currently investigating how access was gained to the subscription list," the university said.
"We would like to assure anyone who received one of these emails that they were not sent by any member of the PCEL team. The content of these emails was extremely offensive and unfounded, and we apologise for any offence caused to those who received these emails.
"This was an isolated incident, affecting the PCEL server only, which runs independently of the St George's University of London (SGUL) main server. No SGUL data, including confidential details of SGUL staff, students or partners, was compromised as a result of this situation".
The first email, which was sent on 15 February and has been seen by the Guardian, said: "Dear PCEL user, if you were ever once a patient of ours, we regret to inform you that the Primary Care Electronic Library is closed due to AIDS. Thank you for your attention."
The following day, the hackers sent three more emails to the site's baffled users. The first said: "Dear PCEL user, You're all cunts. Fuck yourself."
Moments later, another message appeared to confirm that the database was hacked and asked users to disclose their login details and password.
The hackers then sent a final email. It said: "Dear PCEL user, Due to the Administrative Board's involvement in the recent child pornography sting, all PCEL resources and administrative offices will be closing at 24 February, 2011 at 4:00 pm GMT.
"We advise all members to quickly withdraw their memberships as to avoid unnecessary payments which will be caused by the closing procedures."
Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2011/feb/22/hackers-st-george-university
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