Jeff Cirillo is a staff writer for The Hoya.
An email containing pornographic content was sent to the staff of Students of Georgetown, Inc. after the student-run company’s internal email system experienced a breach yesterday.
The email, reviewed by The Hoya, included seven links to internet pornography and an attached image of two men, one labeled with Georgetown University’s logo and one labeled with the logo of Aramark, the university’s dining contractor, performing a sexual act on a woman labeled “The Corp.” The subject line of the email reads in part “[Corpwide] we getting f—ed.”
The email was sent from an email account presumably named for former Corp CEO Taylor Tobin (COL ’17), [email protected]. Current Corp CEO Melina Hsiao (COL ’18) said the account was fake and never used by Tobin, and that The Corp’s information technology staff was working to confirm where the email originated.
The person responsible did not access sensitive information and did not delete or alter any Corp accounts or files. The Corp’s human resources department sent an email to Corp staff apologizing for the incident yesterday afternoon.
The graphic email follows a series of major dining renovations on campus, which saw dining contractor Aramark’s introduction of the Whisk bakery and coffee shop in O’Donovan Hall and a new location for The Corp’s Uncommon Grounds cafe on the second floor of the university bookstore in Leavey Center.
A former senior Corp employee, who declined to be named due to the graphic content mentioned in the article, said the new competition from Aramark for Corp coffee shops has been a topic of discussion among Corp staff.
“It’s absolutely something we’ve all been informed of and conversations with the staff have happened. We’re all very aware that UG has and will have competitors, but we really think it’s our strong community in UG that will keep people coming back,” the employee said. “We’re not too concerned.”
The incident comes during a year of changes for The Corp. The company had to purchase its own Wi-Fi network after the university’s Wi-Fi was deemed not secure for credit card transactions.
UG, its oldest cafe, is set to reopen this fall on the second floor of the university bookstore after 23 years in Sellinger Lounge. UG employees have raised concerns about how the new location, accessible from the Leavey Esplanade and the second floor of the bookstore, will affect the cafe’s customer traffic.
Hsiao said it “may have been beneficial” if the university had given more advanced notice of the planned changes to Sellinger Lounge last year, but The Corp is building “positive relationships” with university administration.
In a March interview, Hsiao said she was excited about the move, but also uncertain about how it will affect UG.
“It’s really exciting in some ways, and a little bit nerve-wracking; it’s going to be a major change to the flow of traffic in the Leavey Center, and that is likely going to be a major change to our business,” Hsiao said. “It is going to be interesting to see how that works out.”
Following yesterday’s incident, Hsiao said cybersecurity is not of particular concern for The Corp compared to other organizations.
“More important is the well-being and comfort of our employees, and it is regretful that a message containing such graphic content was circulated,” Hsiao said.
Editor’s note: The name of a source quoted in the article has been removed at the source’s request due to the graphic content discussed in the article.