CuriousFox profile picture
CuriousFox profile picture

CuriousFox

๐ŸฆŠ

WR Officer
Celebrated Contributor
Arsonist
+11

Cybersecurity Advice

Cybersecurity sales fam, I have questions.


A college is shutting down completely due to a ransomware attack. I find this scary and interesting since this isn't in my field of expertise.


Can you explain why they would close instead of trying to go through remediation? How would you handle this sales call?


They don't call me curious for nothin ๐Ÿ˜‰๐ŸฆŠ

https://news.yahoo.com/lincoln-college-ransomware-attack-shut-down-covid-19-164917483.html?soc_src=social-sh&soc_trk=ma A US college is shutting down for good following a ransomware attack Lincoln College was unable to access recruitment and fundraising systems for months.
๐Ÿ‘‘ Sales Strategy
๐Ÿ” Cybersecurity
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7 comments

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poweredbycaffeine
WR Lieutenant
8
โ˜•๏ธ
It could literally be written into their policy to shut down their servers based on severity of attack. This is also why most Cyber carriers wonโ€™t tough higher Ed. Unlimited endpoints.
RealPatrickBateman
Politicker
4
๐Ÿ”ชAmateur Butcher๐Ÿ”ช
Lincoln is a private college (no subsidies or grants from the government) meaning they rely solely on Tuition and Fees, Athletics, and Donations/Endowments to survive.ย 

Crippling theirย  "...systems required for recruitment, retention, and fundraising efforts" in addition to @UserNotFound's point ofย  "low enrollments + tenured professors who are unwilling to accommodate a digital learning environment but canโ€™t be fired"ย ย is literally a death-sentence.

--> Rising "Cost" with declining "Revenue" and "Retention" = Out of Business.ย 
UserNotFound
Politicker
3
Account Executive
Working in HigherEd now I can tell you colleges are HURTING. Enrollments down ~4% nationally, and I have one school that is down 25%.

Those low enrollments + tenured professors who are unwilling to accommodate a digital learning environment but canโ€™t be fired and itโ€™s a shitstorm at the best of schools. Add in a ransomware attack and it seems your disaster cake is fully baked.
CatMom
Politicker
3
Account Executive
Oh wow! Thatโ€™s wild. My mom works at a hospital and something similar happened there. They almost had to shut down but it took MONTHSSSS to get shit cleaned up after that. Like months before employees even had email use again let alone access to equipment again. Having to do all paper charts and stuff. Crazy shit!
Pachacuti
Politicker
2
They call me Daddy, Sales Daddy
They were idiots. Always back things up on a regular basis and make inaccessible to online peckerwoods.
Notmyrealname
Politicker
2
AE
Reasons to shut down temporarily:

1. They're security software obviously missed this getting in, so it won't be able to find it and remove it now. A case of either pay somebody else who can, or reimage every machine (basically a factory reset, wipes everything, takes hours per machine)

2. Files are now lost and unrecoverable. No point in having anyone in.

3. Students used shared drives/USB drives/etc. a lot. Could be how it got in in the first place. Could cause the ransom ware to spread to people's personal computers.


None of these would force a permanent shut down though. Probably ran out cash and this a convenient excuse ๐Ÿคท
CuriousFox
WR Officer
8
๐ŸฆŠ
Yeah it's the permanent shut down that I can't figure out. Thanks for your input.ย 
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