Northern Essex Community College in Massachusetts has closed its doors for a second day after a cyberattack that took down significant parts of its network.
The college serves over 6,000 students across Massachusetts and southern New Hampshire. Although a spokesperson for the school claimed that there was no evidence of any personal data being compromised, it is unclear whether the attack was ransomware.
The college urged students and employees to regularly change their passwords and contact them if they suspect that their information may have been accessed.
The attack on Northern Essex Community College is the latest in a series of incidents affecting colleges across the US. Last week, colleges in Tennessee and Louisiana were hit by cyberattacks.
In fact, according to Emsisoft ransomware expert Brett Callow, there were 19 reported ransomware incidents affecting post-secondary schools and K-12 school districts in the US by the end of February 2023, up from 15 by the end of February 2022.
Callow warns that “the problem may even be getting worse” and that the education sector is struggling to get a handle on ransomware attacks.
Employees of Northern Essex Community College have been asked to bring their computers in to install protection-clients and perform forensics.
Although some web-based services are still functioning, remote work has been suspended for the rest of the week due to issues with VPN access.
The college aims to be operative by March 8, 2023. The college has contacted law enforcement and cybersecurity experts to help with an investigation.
