MalwareEducationEducationRansomwareData ExfiltratedRansom DemandedCustomer Data InvolvedEmployee Data InvolvedIdentity (basic)Government IDEducationEmploymentMediumContained

Columbia College of Chicago

bd_7f8012c92f50029b · schema v1 · pii pii-v1

Severity

Medium

Discovered

May 30, 2020

Filed

Jul 29, 2020

To disclose

9 weeks

Affected

1state residents only

Linked

8 filings

Confidence

66%

Full breach record for Columbia College of Chicago →

Columbia College Chicago experienced a ransomware attack on May 30, 2020. The unauthorized actor accessed and exfiltrated student and employee personal information, including names and Social Security numbers. One Virginia resident was affected. The institution engaged forensic investigators, contained the incident, and implemented remediation measures including remote monitoring tools, multifactor authentication, and removal of local administrative rights. Affected individuals were offered credit monitoring.

J jump to incidentP pin to compareR raw source

Leak gap clock⏱ Leak >30d9 weeks discovery → filing

⚠ occurrence dateThe stored discovery date equals the breach OCCURRENCE date. Detection is normally later, so this OVERSTATES the delay — a 'late' verdict here may not be real.

Incident timeline

discovery → filing · 9 weeks / 60 days

May 30, 2020

Begins

May 30, 2020

Discovered

Jul 29, 2020

Filed

vs. sector median

on median

This filing is one of 8 about the same incident.View merged incident

Linked disclosures

Why this link?

Ransomware claims (1)

Leak Sitenetwalkerbd_1dda001098a673f82020-06-03 · +56dCandidate

Regulatory filings (6) · sorted by filing gap

Massachusetts State AGbd_3ef7d979c74a98922020-07-15 · +14dVerified
Montana State AGbd_6c1e0586edfbf6072020-07-15 · +14dVerified
Indiana State AGbd_82e118f1ea9b222b2020-07-15 · +14dVerified by operator
New Hampshire State AGbd_b2f2e5126ba2b5e62020-07-15 · +14dCandidate

Show 2 more filings ↓up to 245d gap

Illinois State AGbd_a7c6c1477885762d2020-01-01 · +210dVerified by operator
Massachusetts State AGbd_c6d1e8dc0429f8322019-11-27 · +245dVerified by operator

Name: Columbia College Chicago
norm: columbia college chicago
Domain: wilsonelser.com

Name: Columbia College of Chicago
norm: columbia college of chicago
Industry: Educationllm

Discovered: May 30, 2020
Breach occurred: May 30, 2020
Undetected for: 0 daysoccurrence → discovery
Materiality determined: —
Notification sent: Jul 15, 2020
Affected individuals: 1state-resident count only
Data types: Identity (basic)Government IDEducationEmployment
Data elements: Date of birth
Attack vector: Ransomware
MITRE ATT&CK: T1486 Data Encrypted for ImpactT1041 Exfiltration Over C2 Channel
Threat actor: ExternalFinancial

During the incident: Engaged a third-party computer forensics firm to conduct a thorough investigation into the ransomware incident
Began engaging in negotiations with the unknown/unauthorized threat actors
Providing affected individuals with credit monitoring and identity theft protection services
Changes made: Implementing a remote monitoring tool on all Columbia owned devices to prevent the execution of any malware or ransomware on those devices
Implementing multifactor authentication
Removing local administrative rights
Source: Quoted from the filing itself, not independently verified.

Time to disclose: 9 weeks(60 days from discovery to filing)
Compliance flags: Leak >30d
Discovery-date grounding: occurrence dateThe stored discovery date equals the breach OCCURRENCE date. Detection is normally later, so this OVERSTATES the delay — a 'late' verdict here may not be real.

Status: No extraction artifact recorded for this disclosure.

Filing propagation · 7 filings · 5 states

View merged incident ↗

Massachusetts State AGNov 27 · first

Illinois State AG+35d

Massachusetts State AG+231d

Montana State AG+231d

Indiana State AG+231d

New Hampshire State AG+231d

New Hampshire State AG+245d · this page

Pattern: first filing Nov 27 (MA), last Jul 29 (NH) — a 245-day rolling notification. Rolling spreads often mean counsel is filing as thresholds trip per state. Why this link?

Evidence ladder

Leak-site claim

Attacker assertion only. Establishes: claim date, group, alleged victim.

Press / market report

Unlocks: incident narrative, operational impact. Still no compliance clock.

State AG / regulator filingThis record

Unlocks: discovery date, data types, affected count, compliance clock.

SEC 8-K / victim statement

Unlocks: materiality, stated response, full audit trail. Ceiling removed.

Source URL: https://mm.nh.gov/files/uploads/doj/remote-docs/columbia-college-chicago-20200729.pdf
DisclosureLens links to the originating regulator URL — full filing bodies are not redistributed from public surfaces (§4.5).
Filed at: Jul 29, 2020
Raw hash: 8ef7bd5b74cfcbedb70ca0ba0678f314fb93cc789fe85d26a99c01bcfbfd1779

Linked disclosures

Ransomware claims (1)

Regulatory filings (6) · sorted by filing gap

Reporting entityColumbia College Chicago

Victim entityColumbia College of Chicago

Incidentdiscovered May 30, 2020

Stated responseEngaged a third-party computer forensics firm to conduct a thorough investigation into the ransomware incident

ComplianceLeak >30d

Extraction provenanceno artifact recorded

Source provenancemm.nh.gov