Hacker steals $87,000 from Putnam school account

A computer hacker last year stole more than $87,000 from the Putnam Public School department’s payroll account, according to information released Friday by the superintendent of schools.

The FBI and Putnam police have been working for more than a year to solve the case.

Superintendent of Schools William Hull released information about the investigation in a press release Friday, after obtaining permission from the law enforcement agencies.

According to the release, the school district was notified on Aug. 6, 2009, that the payroll account had been overdrawn. The district notified the Putnam police, who called in the FBI, according to the release.

“It is believed that one of the computers in our business department was infected with spyware allowing the hacker to gain access to our bank account,” the release said. “The hacker then wired $87,990 to other accounts throughout the United States. Money was then wired overseas.”

Hull declined to comment beyond what was in the press release, saying the investigation is ongoing.

According to the release, $7,000 of the funds has been recovered and $10,000 was reimbursed by the district’s insurance company.

The release stated the school is still cooperating with officials to recover the $80,990 that remains missing.

The school district has since installed new protocols for bank accounts and additional filtering equipment for computers, the release said.

No employees have been implicated in any wrongdoing, the release said.

Rick Hayes, Putnam’s police chief, said his department initially was involved in the investigation. However, once it became evident there was an overseas aspect to it, Hayes said the case was turned over to the FBI.

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