Cyber thieves steal paychecks from APS employees

ATLANTA — Hackers were able to reroute the paychecks of dozens of local teachers.

Authorities are now investigating the phishing attack on Atlanta Public School employees.

Officials told Channel 2’s Audrey Washington that the data breach affected nearly 40 APS employees.

The Secret Service and the Georgia Bureau of Investigation are now involved.

Verdaillia Turner heads up the Georgia Federation of Teachers and told Washington she plans to field a number of calls from APS employees, in the coming days.

“It shouldn’t have ever happened,” Turner said. “Who’s running APS? Where are the safeguards?

Washington spoke with APS officials who broke down how this cyber-attack happened.

In a statement, they said they learned of the phishing attack last Friday.

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Officials stated the internet thieves lured “unsuspecting employees into clicking on a fake link through a phishing scam that gave the unauthorized individuals access to what was originally believed to be less than 40 employees” payroll login information.

APS officials went on to say, “The result was the employees direct deposit was re-routed to accounts set up by the thieves.”

Officials confirmed that $56,000 was stolen. The district reimbursed the affected employees but Turner said that’s not enough.

“It’s going to be one thing after another,” Turner told Washington.

As for other APS employees, the district stated that further review with the Secret Service showed that confidential data was potentially exposed for all employees.

District officials say they are working with the Secret Service on the investigation and additional security measures will be added moving forward.

Cox Media Group