Augustana College hit with ransomware attack

• Augustana College confirmed that the ransomware infected server contained personal information of students.
• The college is providing 24 months of complimentary credit monitoring and identity restoration services for all potentially affected individuals.

Attackers infected one of the Augustana college’s servers that contained personal information of students with ransomware.

What happened?

On February 18, 2019, Augustana discovered a ransomware attack on one of its servers. Upon discovery, the college immediately conducted a comprehensive internal investigation and confirmed the incident on March 18, 2019.

What information was involved?

After a thorough investigation, on April 01, 2019, the college confirmed that the ransomware infected server contained personal information of students. However, the college confirmed that there has been no evidence of any information misuse.

What was the immediate action taken?

• Augustana has hired external forensic investigators to investigate the incident.
• The college has taken the infected server offline and has moved the stored information to other servers.
• It has hired third-party vendors to strengthen its security system and avoid such incidents from happening in the future.
• The educational institution is also planning to provide training to users on how to identify malicious files.
• It is further providing 24 months of complimentary credit monitoring and identity restoration services for all potentially affected individuals.

“Augustana College ('Augustana'), recently discovered an incident that may affect the security of your personal information. We want to provide you with information about the incident, steps we are taking in response, and steps you can take to better protect against the possibility of identity theft and fraud, should you feel it is appropriate,” the security notice read.