After over a month of uncertainty about the safety of school servers and personal information, the “cyber incident” that has plagued LBCC in recent weeks is finally over, according to school officials.
According to LBCC’s website, all systems are back online and operational, with summer registration being pushed back to May 7 and summer classes now starting on June 13.
The “cyber incident,” as it has come to be called by school officials, started on April 2 when crypto-currency mining malware was discovered on LBCC computers, according to LBCC’s Chief Information Systems Officer Sylvia Lynch
Lynch said this initial infestation was resolved quickly, but another was discovered on April 10.
According to LBCC’s Associate Director of Public Relations and Marketing Stacey Toda, it is unclear if this second infestation was also a result of malware activity on the school’s servers.
“What happened to our system on April 10 was a second attack. The behavior of this attack was encrypting files,” Toda said. “I’ve used the term malware as it is a broad term that covers these specific events. We are still waiting for the final report from the forensic team.”
Malware or not, the systems appear to be working currently, giving LBCC faculty and staff full access to LBCC’s online resources including Canvas, Moodle, email and Peoplesoft.
Toda said, “About half the computers were affected by the incident, with some having files encrypted, and that there are currently 17 technicians in the field assisting all employee computers.”