Chattanooga State Community College was forced to suspend the start of its summer term for more than 500 students Monday and Tuesday due to a "cyber incident" on Saturday that forced the college to shut down its computer network, according to Chattanooga State Vice President Nancy Patterson.
Patterson said Chattanooga State has informed authorities of the cyber threat, and IT officials are still assessing the college's system and its vulnerability to improper access to computer records.
"While we are still assessing the impact of the threat actor, please recognize that we are early in the investigation as we work to determine if and what data may have been compromised," Chattanooga State said in a "Tiger Alert" sent to the college staff Monday afternoon. "We take the security of information very seriously, and we are diligently working to learn more about the cyber incident."
Patterson said classes were canceled Monday and will be again Tuesday for the 566 students registered to start the 13-week summer term this week.
Chattanooga State's Tennessee College of Applied Technology program, which has 516 students, continued to meet Monday without the computer internet services on campus. The college kept its cafeteria, day care and offices open for staff members who were still working, and the Science Olympiad and most vocational skills training also continued operations despite the lack of the college internet and computer links.
— Compiled by Dave Flessner