Days after students and faculty at Vanderbilt University received racist emails promoting white supremacy, an internal investigation classified it as an external attack marked with use of “sophisticated masking techniques.”
The emails, thousands in number, were sent to Vanderbilt email addresses and other domains on Monday night and early Tuesday morning.
“An analysis of the recipients shows that distribution was broad and diffuse—there does not appear to be any pattern in terms of who received the emails or who received them first. Approximately half of the emails were sent to addresses with no affiliation with Vanderbilt,” the university said in a release.
The university has found that 57 different IP addresses in 17 countries were used to send the emails with technologically-advanced tactics.
“We stand with the African American and black members of the Vanderbilt community who were especially impacted by these hateful messages,” Chancellor Nicholas S. Zeppos said.
“This abhorrent attack on our campus was designed to stoke fear and division. We condemn these messages and the hate and bigotry they espouse in the strongest possible terms,” he added.
The university’s Information Technology department has taken up the matter with the Vanderbilt University Police Department and the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department.