Augustana College and Southeastern Council on Alcohol and Drug Dependence Suffer Cyber Attacks
On February 18, 2019, Augustana College, located in Illinois, and the Southeastern Council on Alcohol and Drug Dependence (SCADD), in Connecticut, suffered ransomware attacks. The exact variant of malware that infected each organization’s networks has not been disclosed. Therefore, it is impossible to confirm the two were a part of the same ransomware campaign, but it is possible.
Augustana College recently notified staff, alumni, and current students their information may have been accessed as a result of February’s cyber attack. The school hired a third-party to investigate the full damages of the attack. Upon completion of their investigation, the firm confirmed there was unauthorized access to one of the school’s servers. This led to concerns employee and/or student social security numbers and birth dates may have been breached. As a result, Augustana College is provided all of those impacted with free credit monitoring services for two years.
In a similar report, the SCADD also has notified approximately 25,000 patients of a potential breach as a result of the cyber attack they experienced as well. There are concerns patient birth dates, social security numbers, addresses, and treatment records were compromised. As a result, SCADD is providing all of their patients with a free year of credit monitoring services.
This isn’t the first time ransomware attacks have led to security breaches, and it won’t be the last. Hackers continue to raise the stakes. Therefore, users must become more vigilant.
