Wednesday, November 5, 2008
An email security breach at George Mason University resulted in students being told the US presidential election had been postponed by a day, it has emerged.
Provost Peter Stearns discovered that his email account had been hacked, allowing a misleading message to be sent to students and staff at the educational institution.
He subsequently sent his own message alerting recipients to the email security breach and stressing that the election was due to go ahead as planned.
"It has come to my attention early this morning that a message was hacked into the system fraudulently stating that election day has been moved," his own email read.
"I am sure everybody realizes this is a hoax."
He added that investigations are now being made into the "serious offense" in an attempt to discover who hacked his account.
Stearns has been provost of George Mason University since January 1st 2000 and teaches in subjects including world history and social history.
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