Hacker takes over Upstate NY school's Facebook page, posts 'inappropriate' sitcom videos

An Upstate New York school district is warning the community to avoid its page after a hacker gained administrative control and began posting inappropriate content.

The Scotia-Glenville Schools, a public school district that serves approximately 2,500 students near Schenectady, said a malicious actor posted a video referencing adult content at 9:04 a.m. on Sunday.

The district said in a press release that the hacker has made posts that are “not only inappropriate but references adult content the district would never condone.”

Starting Sunday morning, the compromised account began posting video clips from the sitcom “Two and a Half Men,” which aired for 12 seasons on CBS from 2003 to 2015.

The district clarified that its internal servers and data systems were not compromised.

The breach originated from a non-district account belonging to the district’s communications specialist, which was used to manage the page. That account was targeted and hacked, giving the unauthorized user control over the school’s presence.

The FBI and Troop G Cybersecurity Crime units are assisting the district in investigating the source of the hack and working to regain control of the page.

While the district has reported the incident to multiple times, the recovery process has been slow. The district said ’s response time is slower than desired because the content being posted does not fall into specific high-priority categories such as human trafficking and child pornography.

The district is urging community members not to visit the Scotia-Glenville Schools page, click on any links, photos or videos posted to the page, or engage with any messages or from the account.