The attack appeared to come from Atlanta-based mortgage lender Equity Prime Mortgage, which was also a victim of the cyberattack, UC Davis officials said. The email came in the form of a “pre-qualification request complete” email.
The email said Equity Prime is “a lender for whites only. That’s how we have such low rates!”
The brief email also included a racial slur and a reference to lynching.
The campaign targeted at least six universities, according to a news release from the university: UC Davis, Harvard, Stanford, Columbia, Michigan and Iowa State.
“The message is racist, abusive and violent,” said Cheryl Washington, UC Davis’ chief information security officer. “It has no place here. We have reported it to the FBI, and will learn from this attack to further tighten our processes to block such malicious assaults.”
Equity Prime is working with the FBI to determine the source of the cyberattack.
©2020 The Sacramento Bee (Sacramento, Calif.) Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
