Colleges and private businesses around the country, including at least one in Colorado, received anti-Semitic flyers blaming Jews for destroying the country “through mass immigration and degeneracy” and asked people to “join . . . in the struggle for global white supremacy.” Hacker Andrew Auernheimer (also known as Weev), an unabashed racist and anti-Semite, claimed credit for exploiting network printers at colleges and businesses to print these flyers. Auernheimer recently wrote in a blog posting about how he used a few lines of code to seek out insecure printers and then caused those printers to automatically print out the anti-Semitic flyer. More information can be found in the following ADL Blogs: Hacker Claims Credit for Anti-Semitic Flyer Sent to College Campuses and Anti-Semitic Flyer from Neo-Nazi Site Daily Stormer Hits Campuses. This incident is an opportunity for institutions and businesses to be mindful about how important it is to protect their systems by: updating software; installing security patches; removing non-approved software (and hardware); and making sure default settings are not creating vulnerabilities, including updating firewall and router software. In addition, it is recommended that institutions and businesses:

• Monitor network traffic to uncover unusual traffic patterns.
• Set and enforce policies that recognize the realities of the intentional and unintentional security threat posed by authorized users. This includes social engineering/anti-phishing and anti-malware training.
• Use solid password practices and two-factor authentication.
• Encrypt all data, at motion and at rest.
• Segregate differing data onto separate networks.
• Follow the principle of least privilege (ensuring that users have the access they need to do their jobs and no more).
• Ensure that physical security is sufficient.

Refer to ADL’s list of Considerations for Digital and Online Security at Jewish Institutions for additional information. As always, please feel free to contact us with questions or for additional assistance.