Letter to the Editor-MMC President Addresses Data Breach

The words “data breach” are becoming more and more frequent in our everyday lives, and I’m sad to report that Mid Michigan College is now among the tens of thousands of organizations that have fallen prey to a hacker. While we are   dismayed by this intrusion, we will not be stymied by it. We are doing everything possible to assist and protect those whose information may have been compromised.

We now know that the breach included access the email accounts of ten Mid Michigan College employees. Our system remained functional and we received no demand for ransom.  However, information in the emails of those ten individuals included spreadsheets containing social security numbers and other personal data. 

I regret to say that the list of individuals whose data might have been seen is large, over 16,000 individuals.  The data breech impacts many members of the College community, including faculty, staff, students, former students and others.

As a dedicated community partner, Mid touches the lives of many members in the mid-Michigan region. This is why I felt it necessary to share this information with you.

If you have had your information compromised, we will be sending you a letter via mail that explains how to activate your two-years of Mid Michigan College provided Experian credit and identity monitoring. There will be no cost to those who were impacted by this breach.

We have already taken steps to strengthen our cybersecurity practices and education to minimize the chance of a second attack.  We know that these threats have become more prevalent during the COVID-19 pandemic and they are likely to continue.

We have alerted law enforcement to the incident, but the identity of the hacker(s) has not been determined, despite the efforts of the investigation team.  We hope that someday they will be identified and brought to justice.  In the interim, we will act to support the affected individuals and to secure our system against future intrusions.

We know that these are challenging times, but we continue to work tirelessly on being your trusted educational and service partner.

Christine M. Hammond, Ph.D.,

President

Mid Michigan College