FALL RIVER — Bristol Community College is the apparent victim of a cybersecurity attack that affected the school’s internet, email and computer network for about a week.
According to a notice on the school website, a “cybersecurity incident” impacted “on-site Internet and networking functions, including email, Teams, shared document sites, and information systems, for students and staff.” A notice on the school’s site has indicated that students and staff should not expect internet or Wi-Fi, and no access to the school’s network, at all college locations.
Bristol has campuses in Fall River, Taunton, New Bedford, and Attleboro.
A source has indicated that the incident occurred around December 22 or 23. According to the school’s websitethe incident has not yet been resolved.
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“The college is conducting a full system audit to determine exactly which systems may have been affected and what impact, if any, there may be on student and staff information,” a statement on the school’s website reads. “We are developing a timeline for a solution.”
A notice on the school’s site also suggests that students and employees change the passwords on their personal and professional accounts.
Bristol’s communications department did not respond to multiple requests for information or comment.
From college winter sessionan accelerated series of courses that take place between fall and spring semesters began on December 27 and ends on January 13. The school contained information for students and employees on how to access the courses given the internet outage.
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Other local cybersecurity attacks
The nature of the Bristol cybersecurity incident is unclear. However, this is not the first time that network systems in local organizations have been found vulnerable to hacker attacks, which can sometimes take weeks to resolve.
In 2013, Swansea Police paid scammers who encrypted and held various files in their computer system for ransom, paying them $750, then the value of two Bitcoins.
In 2019, the city of New Bedford was hit by a major ransomware attack in which criminals demanded $5.3 million in Bitcoin. The city countered $400,000 from insurance proceeds; when this was rejected, the city worked with tech support to successfully recover the data.
Somerset Berkley Regional High School was hit by a ransomware attack in 2020, schools in Newport were hit by malware in 2019, and Brockton Police Department suffered a cyberattack in the summer of 2021 that took network systems offline.
Dan Medeiros can be reached at dmedeiros@heraldnews.com. Support local journalism by purchasing a digital or print subscription to The Herald News today.