Copiah-Lincoln Community College says cyber attack impacted over 50,000 individuals

Mississippi-based Copiah-Lincoln Community College said it experienced a data security incident that compromised the sensitive personal information of more than 50,000 individuals.

In a filing with the Office of Maine Attorney General, Copiah-Lincoln said that on March 11, it identified suspicious activity in its internal network. The community college immediately launched an investigation, with assistance from external cyber security experts, to determine the nature and scope of the incident.

“The investigation determined that there was unauthorised access to our environment between March 8, 2024 and March 11, 2024. The investigation also determined that an unauthorised actor had the ability to access or take certain information stored on the network during this period of time,” the community college said.

The compromised data included names and Social Security numbers. Copiah-Lincoln’s filing with the Maine state regulator also revealed that at least 53,628 individuals were impacted by the incident.

“Upon learning of the event, Copiah-Lincoln moved quickly to investigate and respond to the incident, assess the security of Copiah-Lincoln systems, and identify potentially affected individuals. Copiah-Lincoln also notified federal law enforcement regarding the event,” the community college added.

Copiah-Lincoln has advised all affected individuals to regularly monitor their credit reports, account and benefit statements and report any suspicious activity to law enforcement authorities, including the police and state attorney general. It has also offered one year of complimentary identity protection and credit monitoring services through CyEx to all affected individuals.  

As of now, no known hacker group has claimed responsibility for the data security incident. Also, the notice filed with Maine Attorney General’s Office doesn’t state whether the college has received any ransom demand.