Michigan's Lansing Community College forced to cancel classes following a disruptive cyber attack

Lansing Community College, a leading public community college in Michigan, US, suffered a cyber attack that forced it to cancel classes for several days.

The community college said in a notification on its website that it identified suspicious activity in its internal network, decided to cancel classes, and disconnected its servers and internet from the outside world.

The college also launched an investigation into the data security incident with assistance from third-party cyber security experts to determine the nature and scope of the security incident. State and federal law enforcement agencies were also notified about the incident.

While the investigation is still ongoing, the college did not find any evidence of a ransomware attack and is “currently working to determine the nature and scope of the event.”

Lansing Community College President Steve Robinson said that as of now there is no indication of any personal information being compromised, however, the possibility of the same cannot be ruled out.

“Our own cyber professionals and a group of outside specialists are looking into that but we do feel very comfortable about where we are in the investigation and we know that we’re back safely open with those systems.

“Right now, we have no indication that personal information was at risk, but that’s something we’re monitoring and we will immediately get with folks if there is. But we’ve done a great job getting out ahead of the situation and we’re still on an ongoing basis analyzing what we know about it,” Robinson said.

Lansing Community College tweeted last Sunday that its systems were back online and students and employees will have to change their passwords before logging in.



“The Mid-Michigan Police Academy, Fire Academy, Corrections Academy, Aviation Technology courses in Mason, and all scheduled clinicals will continue on Monday, March 20. Beginning Tuesday, March 21, all classes are continuing their regularly scheduled day and time. If your class does not meet at a set time, you can continue working in D2L as normal,” the college said.

LCC also said that TouchNet, its payment plan vendor, wasn’t affected by the cyber attack and that no “payment and Refund Financial Information students” details were stored within LCC systems.

Earlier this month, the Northern Essex Community College in Massachusetts also suffered a major cyber attack that forced it to suspend classes for two days.

The Northern Essex Community College said in an announcement that on March 1, it identified a “network interruption issue” that affected the functioning of its internal systems. The college immediately involved cybersecurity experts to investigate the matter and notified law enforcement authorities about the same.

The college closed its doors on March 6th and 7th to restore normal operations and resumed classes on March 8. It also urged all affected individuals to change their passwords, including for bank accounts, credit cards, and other financial institutions, review all financial statements, and regularly monitor credit reports.