Californian College Attacked with Ransomware

Data belonging to a California community school has been compromised in a “sophisticated” cyber-attack. 

Menace actors struck the Ohlone Group College District (OCCD) network in Fremont on January 20 2022, disrupting obtain to particular information. College officials stated the private info of some employees, school and present-day and previous students, was compromised.

Social Security numbers, dates of birth, driver’s license figures, US alien registration figures, health care information and financial institution account details were amid the information perhaps compromised in the course of the attack.

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Other data that could impacted included wellness insurance policies data, student ID quantity, race/ethnicity, course listing, class plan, disciplinary file, grades, transcripts and/or IEP/504 plan information.

The on line scholar portal was down for 17 times, and Ohlone College’s phone and email systems ended up knocked offline for 10 days. A different student info procedure was also impacted. 

Ohlone Community Faculty District is a multi-campus solitary group university district situated in the southern part of the San Francisco Bay in California. By means of its primary campus in Fremont and its Heart for Health and fitness Sciences and Technology in Newark, as properly as online, OCCD serves all around 16,000 learners per calendar year.

In a statement released February 4, superintendent/president of OCCD, Eric Bishop, said an unfamiliar party had accessed “certain portions of our network” and that an investigation experienced been launched into the security incident.

“The faculty carries on performing with third-party professionals to look into how this incident transpired and what influence it had on our units,” claimed Bishop.

He additional: “Although we have no evidence of misuse of information, we are proactively notifying people today with data saved on our network.”

The higher education claimed the incident to regulation enforcement and set up a devoted guidance line to assist people influenced by the ransomware attack and subsequent knowledge breach. OCCD stated that it is providing facts breach victims obtain to totally free credit rating monitoring and identification protection providers. 

Considering that falling prey to the cyber-attack, OCCD has taken action to make improvements to its cybersecurity. 

“In reaction to this incident, we modified account passwords and are implementing added security measures. The higher education is also reviewing its guidelines and procedures related to network security,” stated OCCD in a statement.