CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Classes at Central Piedmont Community College have been cancelled after the school reported a hacking incident on their computer network infrastructure.
On Thursday, the Charlotte-based college contacted the Charlotte Mecklenburg Police Department to report the alleged invasion of their technology. CMPD confirmed they were looking into the reported fraud.
The nature of the intrusion was not immediately known publicly.
In 2017 when hackers infiltrated the computer network of the Mecklenburg County, they were able to hold files for ransom.
Some classes were cancelled Friday at CPCC with additional classes cancelled over the weekend, the school posted. Some virtual events were the first to be cancelled on Thurday.
The extent of the network disruptions extends to e-mail and other communications.
CPCC post this message to their website:
Due to the system-wide technology interruptions, Central Piedmont will remain closed Friday, February 12. Information Technology Services continues its work to resolve the issues. Most Friday classes are cancelled. Some select classes have been notified they will meet on campus. Students who have not been notified should not come to campus. Some students have been able to send emails using their college email accounts; however, faculty and staff email accounts are still off-line, so instructors cannot respond to students via college email. We recognize this outage might impact class assignment and deadlines. Instructors will communicate specifics about managing assignments and due dates once the systems are available.
The reported hacking comes at a time when many schools have moved extensively to online and virtual learning due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Late Wednesday, the school had initially said the college was experiencing widespread disruptions to its services including Blackboard, Citrix, Colleague, and other tools learned for online learning and communication.
