Mount said that the problem is fixed and that the recommendation system has not been compromised.

“The most important thing to communicate is that no one hacked into the system.” Mount said.

“We are right in the middle of the most intense fellowship submission process. We don’t want to put fear in anybody.”

OCS has sent a letter to all the students and faculty members in the fellowship application system, explaining the nature of the loophole and the measures that OCS has taken to correct it.

The letter emphasized that “currently no student can access any recommendation files on the system or any files at all other than those containing submissions by the student himself or herself.”

“I just want to thank students for being such honest communicators and helping us fix this problem,” Mount said.

“We welcome critique and advice to help us improve our services.”

Smith declined to comment for this story. Symplicity could not be reached for comment yesterday.

—Staff writer Heng Shao can be reached shao@college.harvard.edu.