A cyberattack on Heartland Community College 's systems has disrupted the normal flow of classes. College officials hope to be able to fix the problem soon .
Heartland Public Information Director Steve Fastsaid Normal Police are also investigating the breach discovered by Heartland Community College staff on Monday.
He said the school and its IT managers have beefed up security in recent months, as the pandemic has made anyone with increased online a greater target for malicious actors.
"More people are working online. There's more data going back and forth," Fast said. "It's a bigger target for malicious actors."
As Fast stated, no data belonging to Heartland Community College students or staff has been breached.
“You have to be incredibly careful, so the IT staff is sifting through the network, making sure there are no signs that anything has been compromised,” he said. “Of course, if that has happened we will take action to contact those individuals.”
Fast added that he does not know whether the perpetrators have demanded a ransom or revealed the motives behind their attack.
"Sometimes these attacks are multifaceted," Fast said. "There could be a number of different goals that the external attackers have. They could be disruptive, they could be looking for financial gain."
This is the second cyberattack to hit an Illinois college. In April, Illinois Valley Community College were breached, according to WNIJ. It happened shortly after the campus closed due to COVID-19 and moved classes online.
Hackers also attacked Oglesby College's networks , causing its website and email system to go down. In the directory where the college's files should be located, the attackers left a ransom note.
