College Hacked- College Suspends Classes Over Ransomware Attack

 

According to its website, all five  Kellogg Community College (KCC) campuses have suspended classes until further notice due to a ransomware attack. The campuses of Battle Creek, Albion, Coldwater, Hastings, and Fort Custer Industrial Area in Michigan have approximately 8,400 students. The 

 organization's technical problems surfaced on Friday, but  only due to Sunday's ransomware attack. At the time of writing this article, the system was still affected. 

 Management suspended all courses indefinitely while the KCC Incident Response Team investigated the extent of the damage and worked to resolve the situation. 

 "We have worked with  IRT experts to resolve this situation as quickly as possible. While investigating this case, all campuses  remain closed until further notice. We will cancel classes until we can safely resume, "KCC said in a statement released Monday morning.

Immediate Measures

As part of a quick response to the current situation, KCC has implemented additional "security measures to prevent  unauthorized access" to the network. According to KCC, this includes  forced resets of passwords for all students, faculty, and staff. 

 "In addition, as a precautionary measure, the system will remain offline until all campuses have been disconnected and considered secure by  IT professionals," the KCC statement said. However, this move could prevent access to university-related services such as "campus email, online courses, resources, etc." As the 

 exam and the end of the semester approach, this seems to be worrisome to students. "We understand that  as we approach the end of the semester, our students may be worried about this situation. Exams are a priority for many. We want to ensure that faculty and students take all necessary steps to ensure that students complete their coursework on time, "says KCC. The 

 University will  resume operations by the weekend. "We would like to welcome  students and faculty again later this week," a statement on Sunday said. 

 KCC did not respond to the Information Security Media Group's request for more information about the ransomware group's identity or its claims.

Fingers Pointing at BlackCat?

BlackCat, also known as Alphav, considered  a rebrand of the DarkSide or BlackMatter ransomware group, has been very active lately. Known to target at least three universities,  two of them, Florida International University or FIU, and Noscaroliner Agricultural Technology State University are based in the United States (Updated: BlackCat Ransomware). What has happened recently?). 

 In a post published on the Dark Web website, BlackCat claims to have stolen about 1.2TB of data and a 300GB  SQL database from FIU. According to the post, the stolen data contains personal information about students and staff, such as social security numbers and contact information. However, the university at the time told ISMG that the preliminary survey did not find any risk of financial information, social security numbers, or  student benefit information. His educational process was also unaffected. 

 BlackHat is also posted on the Dark Website of North Carolina Agricultural Technology State University. However, the ransomware operator did not specify the amount of data leaked from the university.  At 

, a spokesman for NCAT State University told ISMG that the IT services department  shut down various systems shortly after being notified of the containment of the incident. "As a result of a comprehensive review, some investigative authorities have determined that current faculty, staff, or student data are unaffected," said a spokesman at the time..

Educational Institutions Targeted

Given the recent rise in college and college ransomware attacks, Emsisoft threat analyst Brett Callow says BlackCat or Alphav has stepped up attacks on  educational institutions. So far this year, at least 10 US universities or colleges and eight school districts, for a total of 214 schools, have been hit by ransomware, according to 

 Callow. He states that data was stolen in at least 11 of the 18 cases. New Zealand antivirus company 

Emsisoft reports that 88 US education sector organizations were affected by ransomware in 2021 during the state of US ransomware in 2021. 62 were school districts and the rest were  26 university campuses. According to the report, the attack disrupted education in 1,043 individual schools.