A-B Tech works to protect college information from hackers

ASHEVILLE, N.C. (WLOS) - Cyber hackers are constantly trying to steal your information. After a new national cyber threat, at least one mountain college is working to better protect sensitive information.

“It’s a scary thing,” said Brian Willis, Asheville–Buncombe Technical Community College's vice president of IT. “It’s an expensive thing, it’s a disruptive thing.”

Though, cyber hacking is nothing new, it seems attackers are amping up their game in 2019.

“Two weeks ago today, we started getting warning emails from different agencies,” Willis said.

Those emails warned of the new threat targeting government agencies, businesses and colleges.

Willis said just last Monday, he was part of a statewide call addressing the issue.

“It included the governor, the SBI, the National Guard, the FBI,” Willis said.

Willis said on the call, officials talked about ransomware, which is usually initiated through a document sent in an email.

“This virus, when you open the document, will attempt to install software on your computer that will start to harvest your financial information,” Willis said.

That information is then sent back to the hackers. From there, they encrypt your information, so you can’t access it. Then the attackers essentially send a ransom note demanding money.

“The cost of that business interruption can be hundreds of thousands of dollars a day, millions of dollars a day, depending on the size of the entity that’s impacted,” Willis said.

Recently, ransomware hackers have taken over the computer systems of several cities, including Greenville, North Carolina.

Greenville’s Police Department spokesperson Kristen Hunter said, after about a month, they were able to resolve the issue.

Willis said a community college in North Carolina has also been affected. He didn’t want to say which one.

Some A-B Tech students said cyber security isn’t something they typically worry about.

“I honestly never thought about it,” said Austin Carson, an incoming freshman.

Other students said its top of mind for them, especially after the Equifax and Capital One data breaches.

“I couldn’t log in, I was having problems,” incoming freshman Jaliel Black said referring to the Capital One Breaches. “I got a small refund because apparently some of my money went missing.”

But both were excited to hear A-B Tech is making security a top priority, adding more resources and training.

“If nobody opens this suspect attachment, nobody gets affected,” Willis said.

The FBI has tips for anyone who finds themselves under a cyber attack.