Lakeland Community College in Ohio Suffered a Major Data Breach

Lakeland Community College is a public school located in Lake County, Ohio. The school serves approximately 8,700 students at one time and provides over 135 different associate degrees and technical certificates. The school has more than 900 employees and generates over $104 million in revenue annually. Over many years the school serves tens of thousands of students, which means that it's processing and storing a substantial amount of information. All that stored data was recently put at risk when Lakeland Community College suffered a significant data breach.

How Did the Attack Occur?

The Lakeland Community College data breach occurred between March 7 and 31 when a single person gained access to the school's computer network. Once inside the network, the hacker was able to access confidential information and got access to enough data to be harmful to students at the college. There is no data about how the attack was possible, but we suspect either a security vulnerability or a successful phishing attack. Once the attack was complete, the hacker stole a significant amount of data and may now be misusing it.

What Information Was Viewed or Stolen?

While looking through the Maine Attorney General report filed for this Lakeland Community College data breach, we saw that Social Security Numbers, Driver's License Numbers, full names, state identification numbers, credit or debit card data, Passport information, health insurance data, medical details, and more were available. All this data could be used for identity theft attacks and could be incredibly harmful if it is misused. If your data was involved in this breach, you should immediately protect yourself. 

How Did Lakeland Community College Admit to the Breach?

The college filed an official report concerning the data breach with the Maine Attorney General's office. The report details who was involved in the breach and explains what information was lost. The report makes it clear that the breach could impact a large number of students. 

What Will Become of the Stolen Information?

It's likely the stolen data will be leveraged in future attacks in an attempt to generate a profit. The hacker may use the collected data in phishing attempts to make convincing emails and text messages to gather account data for bank accounts, cryptocurrency accounts, and more. It's also possible the attacker will attempt to resell the collected information to earn some money. No matter how the information is used, it's likely to be harmful to anyone involved. 

What Should Affected Parties Do in the Aftermath of the Breach?

If you discover your information was involved in the Lakeland data breach, you should take immediate action to protect yourself from being impacted. The first step is to check your credit report and see if anything odd has been added to it that indicates identity theft. Once you check your credit, you should monitor all your bank and credit card accounts to see if any unexpected purchases are made. Other than that, you can put a freeze on your credit, or you can invest in credit monitoring services. You should also be careful to avoid giving away any personal information about yourself. If you do these things, you should be able to protect yourself against most data-related issues.