MalwareEducationEducationRansomwareVulnerability ExploitRansom DemandedRansom PaidData ExfiltratedSupply Chain (3P Vendor)Identity (basic)Government IDHighContained

Georgia Southern University

bd_e126591bdb34b049 · schema v1 · pii pii-v1

Severity

High

Discovered

Jul 16, 2020

Filed

Oct 13, 2020

To disclose

13 weeks

Affected

6,488state residents only

Confidence

65%

Full breach record for Georgia Southern University →5 incidents on file

Georgia Southern University notified affected individuals of a third-party vendor breach involving Blackbaud. Unauthorized access occurred between Feb 7 and May 20, 2020. Blackbaud, a cloud software provider, suffered a ransomware attack where backup files containing names, SSNs, and donor profiles were exfiltrated. Blackbaud paid a ransom and confirmed data destruction. Georgia Southern removed SSNs from its database and offered one year of Kroll identity monitoring.

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South Carolina clock✓ SC CRA notice due13 weeks discovery → filing

⚠ unattributedNo provenance was recorded for this discovery date and it matches no other date on the record. It may be correct, but it is not independently grounded.

Incident timeline

undetected · 160 days

discovery → filing · 13 weeks / 89 days

Feb 7, 2020

Begins

Jul 16, 2020

Discovered

Oct 13, 2020

Filed

vs. sector median

+4 wks slower

Tracked as a single-filing incident — the only disclosure on record for this event so far.Confirmed6,488 affectedView incident

Name: Georgia Southern University
norm: georgia southern university

Name: Georgia Southern University
norm: georgia southern university
Industry: Educationllm

Discovered: Jul 16, 2020
Breach occurred: Feb 7, 2020 – May 20, 2020
Undetected for: 160 daysoccurrence → discovery
Materiality determined: —
Notification sent: —
Affected individuals: 6,488state-resident count only
Data types: Identity (basic)Government ID
Data elements: Social Security number
Attack vector: Ransomware
MITRE ATT&CK: T1486 Data Encrypted for ImpactT1190 Exploit Public-Facing ApplicationT1041 Exfiltration Over C2 Channel
Threat actor: ExternalFinancial
Regulator citations: Blackbaud reported that it has been working with law enforcement
Initial access: exploit_public_facing

During the incident: Conducted our own investigation of the Blackbaud services we use
Removing all Social Security numbers from the Blackbaud database
Taking additional steps with Blackbaud to better ensure that any sensitive or personal information is encrypted
Secured the services of Kroll to provide identity monitoring services at no cost to you for one year
Changes made: Implemented several changes that will better protect your data from any subsequent incidents
Undertaking additional efforts to harden their environment through enhancements to access management, network segmentation, and deployment of additional endpoint and network-based platforms
Source: Quoted from the filing itself, not independently verified.

Time to disclose: 13 weeks(89 days from discovery to filing)
Compliance flags: SC CRA notice due
Discovery-date grounding: unattributedNo provenance was recorded for this discovery date and it matches no other date on the record. It may be correct, but it is not independently grounded.

Status: No extraction artifact recorded for this disclosure.

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://consumer.sc.gov/sites/consumer/files/Documents/Business%20Resources%20Laws/Related%20Laws/Breaches/2020/GeorgiaSouthernUniversity.pdf
DisclosureLens links to the originating regulator URL — full filing bodies are not redistributed from public surfaces (§4.5).
Filed at: Oct 13, 2020
Raw hash: a366f73c2fd1675b7e24ff78dcfab04ede5a7394e46eb3e38e3ea983e6255d7c

Reporting entityGeorgia Southern University

Victim entityGeorgia Southern University

Incidentdiscovered Jul 16, 2020

Stated responseConducted our own investigation of the Blackbaud services we use

ComplianceSC CRA notice due

Extraction provenanceno artifact recorded

Source provenanceconsumer.sc.gov