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Lewis and Clark CC Students Offered Free Credit Monitoring

In the wake of a ransomware attack that shut down its network in November, Lewis and Clark Community College is working with Experian IdentityWorks to provide students with one year of credit monitoring.

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(TNS) — Select Lewis and Clark Community College (LCCC) students will receive free credit monitoring following a cyber attack last fall.

On Nov. 23, 2021, a ransomware attack was made on the college's computer network. A ransomware attack usually is a type of malicious software designed to block access to a computer system until a sum of money is paid.

The school was closed about 10 days to address the security breach. An investigation that concluded in March determined the computer hack may have obtained students' information, including their addresses, driver's license numbers, facial photographs, health insurance information, medical information, Social Security numbers and student identification numbers.

"Our investigation identified a limited number of individuals' data may have been at risk during the incident," LCCC President Ken Trzaska said. "Any individual with personal information to be at risk has or will be notified."

In a letter to the affected students, LCCC stated it is unaware of any misuse of the students' information, but is working to help students protect their information.

"There is no evidence that your information was individually accessed or misused," LCCC told the affected students. "Nevertheless, we are providing this notification out of an abundance of caution."

LCCC is working with Experian IdentityWorks to provide one year of credit monitoring at the college's expense. According to Trzaska, this offer is being extended to any students whose data might have been affected. The exact number of students affected is unknown, he said.

"It's an unfortunate situation that this happened to the college," he said. "We're just looking forward to moving forward and helping anyway we can."

The LCCC attack was discovered two days before Thanksgiving when the school's IT director detected suspicious activity and proactively took systems offline. A ransom note from hackers demanded a payment, though Trzaska has declined to reveal the sum or identify the suspected culprits.

The credit monitoring offer will be available to students until July 13. Students with questions or seeking assistance are advised to call 877-288-8057.

©2022 The Telegraph (Alton, Ill.). Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.