400 schools hit by US hackers’ bomb hoax

AMERICAN hackers targeted more than 400 schools with a bomb hoax, as over a dozen police forces across the country launched investigations.

Many schools sent urgent messages to parents asking them to pick their children up yesterday morning as they drew up emergency evacuation plans after receiving an email that claimed a student had been sent in with a bomb which would blow up within hours.

Hackers, writing in English and Arabic, demanded that each school pay a ransom and threatened to detonate the bomb if the money did not arrive. “We have sent in a student with a bomb,” the email said.

“The bomb is set to go off in 3 hours time. If you do not send us $5,000 USD to payments@veltpvp.com.

“If you do not send the money! We will blow up the device. Our site has all the information needed. If you try to call the cops we WILL blowup [sic] the device on the SPOT! ANY attempt at defusing it your self [sic] will cause it to explode.” Manor Park Primary Academy in Sutton, Surrey, wrote to parents saying: “We have received a bomb threat saying that a bomb will be going off at 12.30pm today. Please come and collect your child now from the school from the usual collection point.”

Police forces around the UK said that they are investigating a “malicious communication”. They advised that the message was a “national hoax” which detectives believe

‘If you do not send the money we will blow up the device’

originated from the US. Contact details given on the email suggested it was from Veltpvp, a server for the computer game Minecraft, but they released a statement saying that they have “nothing to do with” it.

Carson Kallen, the chief executive of VELT, the Michigan-based firm that runs Veltpvp, told The Telegraph they believed the email was sent from “a group of hackers” who have been targeting them over social media and “harassing employees”.