Cyber Attack Hits NYC College, Demanding $2M Ransom

Hackers Make 7 Figure Demand After Infecting Monroe College

Another cyber attack has hit. This time the cyber criminals targeted Monroe College in New York City, and spiked ransom demands beyond their past six-figure amounts. After successfully infiltrating the college’s network, ransom demands were sent to school officials stating in order to get their files back, a payment must be made of approximately $2 million.

It is unclear if the ransom demands will be met, or if the school has adequate backups to restore their networks. At this time, the school is remaining open and is doing their best to continue classes as normal. Monroe College offers online classes as well, which has proven to be a bit trickier to work around, as their websites are offline. School officials have stated they are working to get online students the assignments needed so their curriculum is not interrupted.

The ransomware variant that infected the school has not been confirmed, but experts speculate it was either Ryuk, IEncrypt, or Sodinokibi.

Other Ransomware Attacks

For a list of ransomware attacks that have already taken place in 2019, you may click here. We have also created a map, see below, of the ransomware attacks that have taken place in the U.S.