It’s a sad story. A 157-year-old college has recently shuttered its doors. The impact of the pandemic on the college was compounded by a final, fatal blow- a ransomware attack. The college, which navigated two world wars, the 1918 Spanish Flu, and economic recessions, could not withstand the cyber attack. The truth is, that the rising cyber attacks on your kid’s schools and colleges are not just disrupting education and causing financial loss, but are also causing some institutions like Lincoln College to permanently close.
Lincoln College, is a predominantly Black college located in rural central Illinois. It broke ground in 1865 on the birthday of President Abraham Lincoln. It was subjected to a ransomware attack in late 2021. Unfortunately, the college was not able to recover from the attack, having also struggled through the pandemic. The college’s president David Gerlach stated in a statement that he tried to raise enough money but was unsuccessful in raising enough to recover from the combined effects of COVID-19, and the December cyberattack.
He said, “The loss in history, careers, and a community that includes students and alumni is enormous.”
Ransomware: The Fatal Blow to Lincoln College, Illinois
Lincoln College, with 600 students, experienced a drop in enrollment after the coronavirus struck, disrupting its finances and operations. But the knock-out punch was delivered when the Administration and Faculty could not access data needed for student recruitment, retention and fundraising. They were being held to ransom by hackers based reported based in Iran. This lack of access to crucial information put the college’s recovery efforts in a tailspin.
According to Lincoln’s statement, there were “significant enrollment gaps” by March when Lincoln had regained computer access. This required a “transformational gift or partnership to sustain Lincoln College beyond this semester.”
Gerlach claimed the school needed $50 million to stay open. And while he reports the ransom paid to regain access to the information was less than $100,000, the delay in access to school data and systems caused the final demise of the historical institution.
Some students, alumni, and faculty heard about Lincoln’s imminent demise. They began to work together to raise funds to keep the college open. They launched a last-ditch fundraising and social media campaign to raise funds, including a GoFundMe account after the ransom was paid.
Annette Roter, an associate Professor at Lincoln, stated in a Facebook posting that she believes that if we had more resources, we could have found someone. However, it was beyond our control.
Annette Roter, an associate Professor at Lincoln, stated that she believes that if they had more resources, we could have found someone to fill the gap needed. However, it was impossible to control the circumstances inflicted by the ransomware. She shared her thoughts on Facebook, trying to console the thousands of alumni, students and faculty who helped keep the school open.
The Rapid Rise in Cyber Attacks on Educational Institutions
Cyberattacks on universities and colleges are often not well-planned. These attacks encrypt digital information so that it is unreadable until ransom is paid.According to Emsisoft’s analysis, classes were disrupted in 1,043 U.S. Schools last year due to ransomware attacks. This included 62 school districts as well as 26 colleges and universities.
“While it is difficult to estimate the cost of these incidents, it is undoubtedly substantial,” New Zealand cybersecurity firm, Cybersecurity New Zealand, stated in a blog posting, citing the $8 million Baltimore County Public Schools spent on recovering from an attack that occurred in 2020.
Cybercriminals have attacked schools, colleges, and universities in recent years. They are often unable to defend against ransomware attacks. In this attack, victims’ digital data is encrypted and the victim has to pay.
Emsisoft’s threat analyst Brett Callow said that ransomware attackers go where they can make money.
“If they find a sector that is particularly profitable, they’ll hit it over and over again,” Mr. Callow stated. He advised schools to take security precautions such as installing security updates and multifactor authentication.
According to an Emsisoft analysis, ransomware attacks affected 1,043 US schools last year. 26 of those were colleges and universities. The trend indicates that attacks on smaller schools districts are more becoming common than they were in previous years.
Technology in Education is Everywhere, Necessary and Disastrous When Compromised
Henry Stoever, the president and chief executive of the Association of Governing Boards of Universities and Colleges said technology “touches almost every part of the academic enterprise”, including financial and health information for students and faculty and data about donors. He said that losing this data could be disastrous.
BlueVoyant’s global head of professional services, Austin Berglas, said that the average ransom attack on a college or university costs around $115,000. That is a relatively low figure compared to other sectors. For example, in the Colonial pipeline ransomware attached, $5M was paid by the East Coast operator to retrieve stolen data on the crucial pipelines.
Mr. Berglas stated that the decision to pay is influenced by factors such as whether the target institution caught the breach in the appropriate time.
The Baltimore County Public Schools were shut down for three days after a November 2020 attack. Data including grades, lesson plans and grades was erased. According to , the NPR affiliate WYPR, the cost of repairing the damage was close to $10 million in November. The district has yet to disclose the details of the demands or the amount paid.
Some victims, refuse to pay. And that can be a major risk too. The sixth-largest school district in the US is the Broward County Public Schools District in Florida. They were put to ransom. And they refused to pay. Hackers demanded an astonishing $40 million in March 2021 to prevent them from releasing sensitive information, such as financial contracts and Social Security numbers. According to The South Florida Sun Sentinel hackers posted around 26,000 files online a month later.
Government Response to Cyber Attacks on Schools
For years, ransomware attacks have been a threat to US education. In December 2020, a joint advisory from CISA (and the FBI ) was issued. It warned that malicious actors were targeting K-12 schools for data theft and extortion.
Three months later in March 2021 the FBI’s Cyber Division released an alert. The alert warned system administrators of educational institutions that they were increasingly being targeted with Pysa ransomware.
Multiple US Senators called for action in November. They petitioned the US Department of Education (DHS) to improve cybersecurity defenses at K-12 schools nationwide.
No doubt, the response of the government will become more weighty as the threat to schools and colleges continues to rise.
The Final Score
Educational institutions, both K-12 and colleges and universities are a growing target for cybercriminals. The threat of choice is usually ransomware. The hackers hold a school’s data and confidential information to ransom. Failure to pay means that educational services cannot be provided. It sometimes results in deletion of records by cybercriminals. That was the case with Lincoln College, a 157 year old institution. It was hit by financial issues from the pandemic and cyber threats finished it off. In holding the institution’s data to ransom, the college could not access crucial information, pushing it over the edge.
Nowhere is safe seeing that everything is so reliant on digital technologies and connection. This doesn’t just include schools and government entities or large corporations. Cybercriminals will try to extract and extort data, information, and identities from individuals that use common online services. And this can lead to enormous frustration and considerable financial loss. Be smart and stay safe!