Chatt State Suffering from Cyber Attack
UPDATE: Chattanooga State has sent News 12 the following statement regarding this cyber attack:
“The College is actively working with law enforcement and a cyber forensics vendor to continue to investigate the cyber incident. At this time, we are following the recommendation of law enforcement and cannot release specific details regarding the nature and scope of the incident. We understand that this may create uncertainty, and we appreciate your patience and understanding as we work towards a resolution.
We are working closely with TBR-The College System of Tennessee, the State of Tennessee Attorney General’s Office, our forensics and cyber protection vendor/s, and other appropriate agencies to accomplish a successful recovery. We want to assure our students, faculty, staff, and community that we are taking measures to protect our systems and data in an effort to mitigate future incidents.
We apologize for any inconvenience this incident may have caused, and we are committed to keeping you informed as we continue to investigate and recover. We encourage you to remain vigilant and follow best practices to protect your personal information.
We ask for continued patience and support as we work through this challenging situation.”
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CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. (WDEF)-Chattanooga State is attempting to recover from a cyber attack over the weekend.
Yesterday was supposed to be the beginning of the summer semester at Chattanooga State.
But a discovery over the weekend has put the campus on pause.
Ada Coffey, a student at Chattanooga State, said, “Well I missed a class and I’m not sure what I have for this week so that means that I’m already one week on studying already.”
Chattanooga State officials say through updates on their website that the trouble began on Saturday when their I-T Department noticed a quote “cyber incident” that necessitated the shut down of many campus services.
There are ten separate services currently unavailable at this time:
- Student IDs
- Parking Passes
- Academic Advising
- Financial Aid
- Registration
- Payments
- Transcripts Requests
- Testing
- Career Services
- Center for Access & Disability Services
Chattanooga State notes that all questions about these services cannot be answered this time because the systems needed to answer those questions are also unavailable.
Only the library, cafeteria, daycare center, and bookstore are currently open at this time.
This attack has led Chattanooga State to cancel all classes scheduled from May 8-th through the 26-th, and has delayed all credit classes scheduled through the summer.
They say information about refunds for the classes canceled will be forthcoming.
Chattanooga State has not said what caused the attack or what the damages are.
Coffey said, “I talked to a few of the cafeteria ladies. They said this was really impactful and that a lot of the people demonstrated an anxious attitude.”
The campus was relatively empty Tuesday due to the wave of closings, with only a handful of students and faculty around.
The only classes currently meeting are T-CAT and Economic Workforce Development Classes along with Skillup.
Events such as T-CAT National Signing Day and a retirement celebration scheduled in the next week have also been canceled.
There is no indication of when things will get back to normal.
Coffey said, “Some people are attending from as far away as Spring City, and they have financial aid stuff they have to do, and they have homework, and they have all kinds of things they need to do, so it’s really hard on them especially since we were unaware of attacks and they happened as a surprise meaning people were here before they found out it was closed, including me.”
We reached out to the administration at Chattanooga State for further comment on this situation and what students and faculty can expect moving forward.
They have not yet responded to any of our messages.
