North Carolina A&T hit with ransomware after ALPHV attack

North Carolina A&T University has become the latest school hit with ransomware in 2022.

The largest historically black college or university (HBCU) showed up on the ransomware victim site of the ALPHV/Black Cat group on Wednesday after they released a public statement two weeks ago detailing a “cybersecurity breach.”

The university said it was attacked during the week of its spring break between March 7-11, continuing a longstanding trend of ransomware groups attacking victims when they know security teams will be at their smallest.

The ransomware attack disrupted the school’s wireless connections, Blackboard instruction, single sign-on websites, VPN, Jabber, Qualtrics, Banner Document Management and Chrome River. Some of the services are still down.

The ALPHV/Black Cat ransomware group said it stole the personal information – including Social Security numbers – of students, teaching staff and others. The group also claimed to have stolen contracts, financial information, SQL databases and email databases.

North Carolina A&T University Director of Media Relations Jackie Torok told The Record that “after exhaustive review, multiple investigating agencies have found no current faculty, students or staff were affected by this incident.”

She declined to comment further when asked questions about claims from the ransomware group that disputed her comments.