Education · 2022
Lincoln College: ransomware and a school closure
The school that closed after 157 years.
What happened
In December 2021, ransomware disabled the recruitment, retention and fundraising systems used by Lincoln College, a small Illinois institution already under pressure after two pandemic years. The college paid a ransom reported to be under $100,000, but restoring its systems still took until March 2022.
Once administrators recovered the data, delayed enrollment projections revealed a deficit the college could not absorb after two pandemic years. Lincoln College closed on May 13, 2022, after 157 years. Ransomware turned an existing financial crisis into an operational one: the institution lost access to the information it needed to recruit students, raise funds and make decisions while there was still time to act.
What would have changed it
A recovery plan must protect decision-making, not only files. We identify the data the organization cannot operate without and test how quickly it can be restored.