Cybercriminals used ransomware to disable the technology systems and platforms at New York's Monroe College last week, according to Inside Higher Ed. They locked Monroe students, faculty and staff members out of the college's website, learning management system and email system and demanded roughly $2 million in Bitcoin to restore access.
Monroe officials have not commented on whether they will pay the cyberattack ransom, Inside Higher Ed reported. They are working with the FBI and local law enforcement officials to investigate the ransomware attack and resolve the incident.
Monroe's main website was restored over the weekend, but the college has not publicly shared whether access to its IT systems has been restored, Inside Higher Ed noted. Meanwhile, Monroe officials have advised students to continue to attend classes and submit homework on paper and contact the college via their personal email accounts.
The Monroe ransomware attack comes after Iowa's Grinnell College, Ohio's Oberlin College and New York's Hamilton College experienced ransomware attacks earlier this year. Furthermore, Massachusetts' Cape Cod Community College and Wisconsin's Northcentral Technical College suffered cyberattacks last year.
MSPs Also Suffer Ransomware Attacks
MSPs have also suffered ransomware attacks in recent months. The fallout has included:
- An MSP paying hackers $150,000 to unlock data;
- hackers specifically targeting MSP software platforms to launch ransomware attacks; and
- Ryuk ransomware hitting a CSP that works closely with MSPs.
Hackers worldwide have been hitting MSPs of all sizes — not just global technology service providers. The FBI and U.S. Department of Homeland Security have repeatedly warned MSPs and their technology platform providers about such attacks.
Amid those challenges, the MSP industry (spanning technology companies, service providers and more) could soon face a “crisis of credibility” if the market doesn’t take major steps to more effectively mitigate ransomware threats, cyberattacks and associated fallout, ChannelE2E and MSSP Alert believe.
Additional insights from Joe Panettieri.
