Press Release

Friday, March 03, 2017

Update – Malicious emails sent to university community

Progress has been made in our efforts to counteract the tactics of the individual behind the malicious emails sent to some members of the university community over the past six days.

Teams in our IT department have been working non-stop keeping watch in order to intercept the messages coming from this individual. The messages are difficult to block because the perpetrator uses several identities. Progress has been made over the past two days,” said President and Vice-Chancellor, Raymond Théberge.

For public safety reasons, the strategies being used by our IT department for intercepting these messages will not be divulged. “Doing this would mean opening ourselves up even more to the perpetrator’s campaign and make it easier for him to attack the victim even more,” Mr. Théberge said. “We are therefore requesting the cooperation of the media in this matter.”

The ongoing investigation was able to determine that this is a matter of identity theft. The institution’s data and the personal information of the university’s students and staff are secure.

A 24-hour, toll-free psychological helpline will be set up shortly for our staff members and students. This is being established to support members of the university community on all three campuses. This service is in addition the one announced earlier this week for members of the university community on every campuses.

A web page was created during the week in order to educate and raise awareness in the university community on preventative measures to take against cyberbullying. “This web page will be enhanced and will contain more information on preventative measures, including frequently asked questions, and will communicate the most recent developments regarding this malicious email campaign on a regular basis.”

“In closing, we sincerely welcome the offer of support from the provincial government, and we are continuing our cooperation with the RCMP’s investigation into this matter,” Mr. Théberge said. Our objective is to ensure safety on our campuses and to stop this campaign of degrading and unwanted emails.”




Return to Press release