Vice Society ransomware gang targets Cincinnati State College, disrupts operations

The Cincinnati State Technical and Community College suffered a cyber attack in early November that compromised the functioning of multiple systems and online services.

Earlier this month, Cincinnati State College started informing its 10,000 students and about 1,000 staff members that it suffered a significant cyber attack that impacted online services and multiple internal IT systems. The college said that the restoration of daily operations could take some time.

According to the institution’s latest update, several systems like blackboard, on-campus email, on-campus Internet, Middletown internet access, guest WiFi, password resetting via Technology Helpdesk and classroom computers have been restored.

However, systems like voicemail, online application and online registration, SurgeCard creation, self-services, and online financial aid services, network printing, VPN, eForms, admission application are a few of the other services that are yet to be restored.

“The College is making excellent progress towards restoring many systems and services. Classes for students are continuing on all campuses and online. Email is operating,” the college confirmed.

The notorious Vice Society ransomware gang has claimed responsibility for the cyber attack on Cincinnati State College and has begun leaking data stolen from the college on its Tor data leak site.

The stolen documents allegedly date from several years ago until November 24, 2022. In fact, the threat actors have given free access to all visitors who want to check the compromised data containing personally identifiable information.

The Vice Society gang was also responsible for a major ransomware attack on the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD), the second largest school District in the U.S. with more than 640,000 students and more than 26,000 teachers at over 1,000 schools. After the school district refused to pay a ransom, the ransomware listed LAUSD on their data leak site and began leaking stolen data.

In July this year, the ransomware gang also claimed the Medical University of Innsbruck as its latest victim and leaked an extensive list of documents it stole from the university. The gang also claimed responsibility for a ransomware attack on the city of Palermo in June that disrupted several citizen-oriented services and management operations.