Sierra College is now one of the latest victims of a ransomware attack. The results can be catastrophic, as systems become encrypted by malicious actors seeking large ransom payments via cryptocurrency, to provide the decryption key to unlock hacked systems. Many are left little choice to pay huge amounts of money. At the Nevada County campus, Executive Dean Stephanie Ortiz says it’s occurring with more disturbing regularity for all kinds of public industries and institutions…

click to listen to Stephanie Ortiz

Ortiz says systems, including hundreds of desktop computers, were down, starting about two weeks ago. But most services are back online…

click to listen to Stephanie Ortiz

College officials also say hackers did not steal any personally identifiable information, student e-mails were not affected, nor were bank accounts. They have not said anything about a ransom demand or whether one was paid.