Washington College Security Incident

Higher Education Washington College Approaches Settlement Over Data Breach A private liberal arts college in Maryland may have to reimburse thousands of people up to $5,000 in extraordinary losses" after it failed to notify victims of a cyber attack for almost 250 days. December 02, 2024 Racquel Bazos, Baltimore Sun Facebook LinkedIn Twitter Print Email Shutterstock/CROCOTHERY (TNS) Washington College, a private liberal arts college in Kent County, is one step closer to finalizing a settlement after a class action lawsuit over data stolen in a ransomware attack was filed this summer. Documents filed in Anne Arundel County Circuit Court show more than 13,000 people current and former students and employees of the school were affected by the data breach. Though the final approval hearing for the settlement is scheduled for May, the court granted the plaintiffs unopposed motion for preliminary approval of the settlement on Nov. 22. The plaintiffs say in filings that Washington Colleges data was breached for about a month between February and March 2023, in what the college called a potential ransomware incident by an unauthorized actor who accessed the data via VPN in a letter to the Maine attorney general obtained by The Capital Gazette. The letter says 44 Maine residents were affected by the breach. However, the college only sent notice letters to those affected in November 2023, the documents show, almost 250 days after the attack, which exacerbated the injuries, according to the plaintiffs. The plaintiffs say Washington College had a duty to protect the information it collected that it didnt fulfill. The school was unaware of the attack until 31 days after the breach began, according to the class action petition. Additionally, the suit says the college failed to adequately train its employees on reasonable cybersecurity protocols or implement reasonable security measures. According to the documents, the college has been unable to determine precisely what...

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