EWC update on IT incident

Eastern Wyoming College is in the process of responding to a security incident involving the targeting of our information technology systems by an unknown third party.  We are treating this incident with the highest priority and working with outside experts to remediate the problem and responsibly and securely restore full IT operations.

Upon discovery of evidence of a security incident on the morning of Tuesday June 22, 2021, we immediately took our systems offline and initiated contact with independent computer security and forensic experts, who are helping us understand the full nature and scope of the event. We have reported the incident to law enforcement and are sharing information for that investigation.

We have been conducting a methodical process to assess, restore and rebuild impacted individual IT systems and equipment using available backup files, and are only returning affected computers to service after they have been reformatted and scanned.  Additional measures include resetting administrative credentials and passwords and implementing advanced monitoring and threat detection across our network.

By following our established procedures, we are hopeful to safely restore IT operations shortly.  Although our investigation is ongoing, we have received no reports to-date that the Canvas module have been impacted by this incident. In fact, access to Canvas has now been restored to currently enrolled summer students. Those students should call Sue at 307.575.0646 or Dixie at 307.575.6250 to obtain their new Canvas password.

In addition to completing extensive measures to restore and confirm the security of our system, EWC is committed to conducting a thorough forensic investigation and taking all appropriate action in response to our findings.  We also will be working with our outside experts to implement additional security enhancements to help protect against future attacks.

We apologize for any inconvenience or concern caused by this incident.  As our investigation and recovery continue, we will provide updates on our progress.