TMCnet News
Downingtown schools victim of cyber theft?Apr 12, 2013 (The Philadelphia Inquirer - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- In what might have been a cyber attack, $665,000 in Downingtown Area School District funds wound up in "foreign bank accounts," the district announced Friday. Downingtown Police Chief James R. McGowan said the FBI is investigating the theft, which occurred through three wire transfers. The money was in school district funds deposited at DNB First bank. The theft was discovered on Wednesday, and all the money was recovered by Friday, officials said at a news conference. They did not say how the thefts were discovered, nor how the funds were recovered. No suspects or arrests were announced. "It's a sad story, and a good-news story," said Lawrence Mussoline, the Downingtown school superintendent, referring to both the loss and the recovery. With about 12,000 students, the district is one of the state's largest, with a 2012-13 budget of $197.7 million. Mussoline declined to state to which nations the wire transfers were went. "We believe the system was hacked," he said. "We need for people for to be forever diligent when they are on the Internet, said William S. Latoff, chairman and CEO of DNB First. "The FBI Cyber Crime division," Mussoline said at the news conference, "notes that 'every day criminals are invading countless homes and offices across the nation, not by breaking windows and doors, but by breaking into computers and wireless devices by hacks and malicious code.'" Contact Walter F. Naedele at 610-313-8134, [email protected] or follow on Twitter @WNaedele. ___ (c)2013 The Philadelphia Inquirer Visit The Philadelphia Inquirer at www.philly.com Distributed by MCT Information Services |