BREAKING: Harker Outlook temporarily unavailable for faculty

The+Office+of+Communication+notified+parents+today+that+the+Harker+Outlook+email+accounts+are+currently+inaccessible.+Faculty+will+be+notified+when+Outlook+is+restored.+

Nicole Tian

The Office of Communication notified parents today that the Harker Outlook email accounts are currently inaccessible. Faculty will be notified when Outlook is restored.

by Alysa Suleiman, Co-Editor-in-Chief

This is a developing story. Check Harker Aquila for future updates.

Jan. 9, 11:19 a.m.

The Harker website and portal have been restored this morning, according to an email Office of Communication Director Pam Dickinson sent out to parents at 10:01 a.m.

Jan. 8, 8:17 p.m.

Harker email through Outlook is restored as of 4:16 p.m., according to a text message update from the Office of Communication.

Jan. 8, 2:44 p.m.

Harker email through Outlook (email addresses ending in “@harker.org”) is unavailable for faculty and staff, according to a text message sent out by the Office of Communication at 12:00 p.m. today.

The Office of Communication will notify faculty when Outlook is restored. Gmail (email addresses ending in “@staff.harker.org” or “@students.harker.org”) is still accessible by students and faculty.

Infinite Campus is also currently inaccessible, according to an email sent out to parents by the Office of Communication yesterday Jan. 7. The Harker School’s web provider, Finalsite, experienced an outage that has impacted thousands of schools nationally, including Palo Alto High School

According to Dickinson, Harker only stores names, email, home addresses, usernames and passwords in Finalsite.

“We have been in communication with Finalsite regarding the issue and they have shared there is no evidence that any data has been compromised as a result of this incident,” Dickinson wrote in the email. “They are continuing with a thorough investigation with a third-party forensic specialist and will keep us informed as it progresses.” 

Finalsite released an update this morning affirming that administration access has been restored to over 70% of sites. 

“We still recommend that you limit software use to important page updates or edits and avoid relying on Alerts, Messages, and eNotify until our monitoring metrics demonstrate greater stability,” Finalsite’s update read.