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U-M Athletic Department Facebook pages hacked

A "hacking" sign.
Alexandre Dulaunoy
/
Flickr - http://michrad.io/1LXrdJM

Update 4:00 p.m.

The offending posts have been removed from the Facebook pages. Kurt Svoboda, an associate director with U-M's athletic department sent us this statement via e-mail:

We are actively working to resolve the issue with experts throughout the University and at Facebook. That remains our top priority.

Original post 1:12 p.m.

I was wondering why Michigan Football wanted me to know about "22 Child Stars That Grew Up And Got Superhot" last night as I scrolled through my Facebook feed. 

Huh. Weird.

This morning, I found out that the University of Michigan lost control of the account along with several other Facebook accounts.

If you want to see all the NSFW posts, SB Nation has ranked them by "likes."

UM officials in charge of the accounts said the situation was under control this morning. From a post on UM's Football Facebook page:

Fans – Early this morning, Facebook accounts for Michigan Athletics, football and men's basketball were compromised. Thanks to diligent work on behalf of our partners at the University of Michigan and at Facebook, we have resolved the situation and deleted any offensive posts.

But the situation is not under control.

More posts have appeared on the page as of this writing.

Nikki Sunstrum, the social media director for the University of Michigan, said they are "experiencing a second wave" and are working to solve the problem.

Earlier today, Sunstrum sent an e-mail to The Ann Arbor News:

...the school's Department of Information Technology identified the malicious account activity early this morning and have been working with the Department of Public Safety and Security and Michigan Athletics to rectify the issue. "This is an unprecedented issue, and we are taking all necessary precautions to protect the safety and security of our other numerous social media properties," she wrote.

The News' Jeremy Allen wrote that the pages of Michigan Athletics, Michigan Football, and Michigan Basketball had been taken down temporarily by Facebook this morning.

All three pages are back up now as of this writing with rogue posts still occurring.

 

Mark Brush was the station's Digital Media Director. He succumbed to a year-long battle with glioblastoma, an aggressive brain cancer, in March 2018. He was 49 years old.