Special Olympics New York, a non-profit organization that helps provide opportunities for people with intellectual disabilities and their communities to compete in Olympic-style, coached sports had its email server hacked during the holidays. The hackers were able to compromise and launch a phishing campaign targeting its donors. It tells the recipients that an automatic donation of $1,942.90 would register on their accounts in the next two hours. The phishing email tricks the victims into clicking the hyperlink which is supposedly the PDF statement verifying the transaction details.
In a post via their Instagram account, Stacey Hengsterman, President & CEO of Special Olympics NY, published this: “Boo! As you may have noticed, our email server was temporarily hacked. We have fixed the problem and send our sincerest apologies. While donating to Special Olympics NY is always a good idea, we would never ask in such a grinchy way.“
They urged the donors to disregard the emails they received and assured them that the issue has already been fixed. They can now continue donating again securely without any complications. Furthermore, Special Olympics NY explained that the incident has only impacted their communication system and hasn’t affected any financial data. Contact information remained protected and kept confidential.
