Bretton Cole
Editor-in-Chief
Crowder College has continued to suffer the long-lasting effects of the ransomware attack that hit the college’s network over the summer. Most labs are up and running, email is nearly fixed and classes are for the most part running smoothly.
Dr. Coltharp, Crowder president, has been keeping teachers and faculty up to date with the latest information, detailing the progress the college has made in re-structuring the new system. They are currently working on sharing the same information with the other campuses as well.
After being broken as a result of the ransomware attack, the “I Forgot My Password” link on the My Crowder website has been fixed, according to Amy Rand. Students are now able to reset their own passwords if necessary.
The college has also implemented a new strategy with a company called Artic Wolf who will provide 24/7 monitoring of Crowder’s computer system. The college has reportedly made it a priority to spend more of their budget on the network to help fortify against and prevent future attacks.
The Crowder attack is not an isolated issue. In fact, computer ransomware attacks have been a problem across the nation. Not only have other local companies been hit, such as the KNEO radio station, but other schools have also been attacked.
San Bernardino school system in California was recently hit with an attack very similar to the one Crowder faced, according to the San Bernardino Sun.The unified network has been locked down with an undisclosed money demand. The district, comprised of 72 schools and 53,000 students, faces a road to recovery likely similar to the one Crowder is on now.
There has been a lot of progress made, but the key focus as Dr. Coltharp has repeatedly pointed out, is rebuilding and strengthening the system following the attack. It’s happened once while the school was ill-prepared to handle the effects. The IT department is going to great lengths to assure that won’t happen again.
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