Now an email has surfaced indicating reports of phishing attacks are up.
The morning of March 7, an email from the chief information officer with Bismarck State College was sent to employees and faculty regarding the recent server break-in.
In that email was a quote being attributed to NDUS’ Deputy Chief Information Officer Darin King. It says:
“We are getting reports of phishing attacks directed at users, likely due to this incident.”
Until now, NDUS has claimed there is no indication the personal information being housed on that server was actually accessed, so we began investigating.
Valley News Live Reporter Mellaney Moore made multiple calls and King wouldn’t call her back to answer questions about the breach.
She did get a hold of the NDUS Communications Director Linda Donlin, who told her they “firmly believe” the hackers weren’t specifically targeting the personal information on the server, but rather using the power of the server for another outside target.
Donlin says King’s email meant they are seeing more phishing reports due to heightened awareness of the attack.
Nonetheless, NDUS signed a contract this afternoon with an identity protection service which will
be available for the next year to all whose information was held on that
server.
Moore also asked Donlin if the personal
information on the server was encrypted.
She said she didn’t know and would call us back. We are still waiting on that information.