Southeastern President John Crain sent out a lengthy message about multiple challenges the college has faced the last few weeks because of an incident that led to the abrupt disruption of their network and related information technology systems.
Crain said people across the institution responded quickly and appropriately. Faculty worked to ensure students could continue progressing in their courses, staff have endeavored to maintain campus services, and students have shown remarkable resiliency.
Crain said moments following the initial network incident, technology staff took steps to help safeguard data and reported the incident to the appropriate authorities. Their swift action helped avert a potentially larger incident.
Crain said many systems have already been restored, and he is confident largely normal operation of all information technology services will continue.
Authorities are conducting an in-depth investigation to understand the source and scope of the incident and, hopefully, reduce the likelihood of similar occurrences elsewhere or repeat occurrences at Southeastern. For multiple reasons, Crain said the school cannot share more specific information while the official investigation is ongoing. He said it is an unfortunate reality that network security incidents have become increasingly common.
Crain said he was extremely proud of the collective response and he has no doubt Southeastern will persevere, overcoming this challenge as it has so many others.
Meanwhile credit card payment services and “Moodle”, an online class program, are running again at Southeastern for the first time in over three weeks. Credit card systems and Cub Cash are live again and wi-fi is now available across campus.
