Parents in the US have reported receiving an infamously explicit image after hackers targeted a school app with 10 million users including teachers, students and family members.
There have been many reports from schools and teachers about the image being sent from hacked accounts on the Seesaw app.
Seesaw said a link to an “inappropriate image” was shared and action was taken to fix the issue.
The graphic image is a very explicit internet meme meant to shock.
Someone who works with teachers and students told Seesaw via Twitter, “They have a hack in Messages that allows an inappropriate image to be shared with families and teachers in multiple districts. Please take action!”
In his statement, Seesaw denied that hackers gained administrative access but instead hacked “siloed” individual accounts.
It shared more details about the attack and its response to it on a status page.
“Widespread compromised emails/passwords reused across services were used to gain unauthorized access to Seesaw accounts,” it said.
Some parents told US media that they were horrified when the picture appeared in group chats.
The head of a Milwaukee school warned parents not to blame those who appeared to have sent the message.
“Although specific parents’ names were attached to these messages,” the school’s statement said, “we know those parents were not involved.”
Seesaw said in response to the incident:
- The messaging feature has been completely disabled to prevent other users from seeing the inappropriate message
- removed the inappropriate message from the accounts to which it was sent
- Reset the passwords of all compromised accounts and notified users
Many schools sent out warnings about clicking on links obscured by bit.ly – a link shortening service.
Seesaw said it worked using bit.ly to disable the links.
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