This is an archived article and the information in the article may be outdated. Please look at the time stamp on the story to see when it was last updated.

DAVIDSON COUNTY, N.C. — The Davidson County Sheriff’s Office is investigating an “email spoofing attack” that impacted Davidson County school system employees, Sheriff David Grice said.

A memo sent to all Davidson County Schools employees and given to FOX8 by multiple employees said:

“We recently discovered that our company was the victim of an email spoofing attack on January 31, 2017, by an individual pretending to be our Superintendent. A request was made for all 2016 Davidson County Board of Education employee W-2 information. Unfortunately, copies of all 2016 employee W2 forms were provided before we discovered that the request was made from a fraudulent account by someone using the name of our Superintendent.”

The memo continued that the school system discovered the request was false later that day.

Grice said the sheriff’s office was notified by the Davidson County superintendent’s office Wednesday.

The memo said, “As a precaution, for those individuals affected by this incident, we have arranged for Equifax to protect your identity for 12 months at no cost to you. The cost of this service will be paid for by Davidson County Board of Education.”

A call center is also to be set up for employees with questions, the memo said.

Donna Stafford, Davidson County Schools chief public information officer, confirmed to FOX8 Wednesday night that the attack impacted all 2016 Davidson County Schools employees and independent contractors.

In a press release, Davidson County Schools said Wednesday night:

“Davidson County Schools took immediate action to this breach by notifying local law enforcement, the North Carolina Attorney General’s Office, and most importantly our valued employees and other partners that may be impacted by this breach.”