Community college in southwestern Illinois closes after ransomware attack

Lewis and Clark Community College has closed its campuses after experiencing a cybersecurity incident on Nov. 23, the school announced.

“Upon discovery, we proactively took our systems offline and, out of an abundance of caution, have closed Lewis and Clark campuses this week to provide necessary recovery time for our systems,” the school wrote in a release posted to Facebook.

The social media post does not describe the nature of the cybersecurity incident. The school is working with local law enforcement and data security experts to assess the situation. As of Tuesday, they had not determined if any specific information was affected.

The same week Lewis and Clark saw a ransomware attack, Butler County Community College in Pennsylvania was also targeted, according to the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. Butler is slated to reopen on Monday.

So far this year, there have been 26 ransomware incidents that targeted colleges or universities in the U.S., according to Inside Higher Ed. In 2019, there were 18.

Final exams for Lewis and Clark students were scheduled to start Dec. 11, with the semester break starting Dec. 16. The college said timelines for student assignments and exams will be adjusted to account for any work that can’t be completed because of the system shutdown.

This story was originally published December 2, 2021 at 12:04 PM.