ROCKLAND — During the week of Thanksgiving, staff members of Regional School Unit 13 received a phishing email, and some staff members fell prey to the scam. 

Staff members in the district that includes Oceanside High School, Oceanside Middle School, Cushing Community School, Thomaston Grammar School, Ash Point Community School, South School and an alternative education program received an email stating the mailbox of their school email account was full. 

Those receiving the email were prompted to enter the passwords of their email account into a website to resolve the issue. 

Several staff members in the district believed the email to be genuine and entered in their account’s password, according to RSU 13 Superintendent John McDonald.  

By entering their password, the outside party was granted access to the district’s faculty and staff email address book within the system, which is made public across the websites of the district and individual schools within the district. 

Email addresses created by the district for each high school student, which are not available to the general public, were also made available to the outside party. 

No other data was exposed, only email addresses. 

The district’s information technology staff became aware of the phishing scam and acted quickly to secure the system, noted McDonald. 

All student email accounts have been reset and their passwords have been reset. 

Staff members have been advised by the district to change their passwords. 

Reach George Harvey at: sports@penbaypilot.com.