PUBLIC RELEASE DECEMBER UPDATE

Following is updated information on the cyber crime committed against the Spotswood School District and th Borough of Spotswood. This criminal act began with a hack of the Spotswood School District email system. The cyber criminals found an email string between the District and the Borough and inserted themselves into it which later resulted in both the Borough and District believing they were dealing with each other when in fact they were not.

We’ve taken a number of steps since the incident including:

● Forensic examinations of both of our IT systems have been completed showing that no other financial transactions or critical information was compromised.

● We’ve put in additional safeguards, including email screening to identify and flag suspect email addresses, multi factor authentication, and cyber training for all employees in both entities.

● No further wire transactions are taking place between the Borough and the District. I

have hand delivered the last three payments between us.

● I am now the fourth approver on all requisitions and purchase orders taking place in the Borough.

In addition, we continue to meet with the Spotswood Superintendent and the Board President to work towards replacing the stolen funds.

● We recently met with our State Senator Owen Henry to enlist the help of the state.

● Our risk manager continues to press our insurance carriers for adjudication of our

claims.

● We remain in close contact with the Prosecutor’s Office to seek updates on the criminal investigation.

● We’re pressing the law firm hired to conduct an independent investigation of this matter to complete the review and issue their report.

We thank you for your patience as we work through this and as we get new information to

share, I will issue updates.

Rich O’Brien

Mayor