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'This has been extremely stressful': DMACC president shares how hackers got into campus computer systems

The cyber attack shut down campus life for nearly two weeks.

ANKENY, Iowa — After more than two weeks of technology experts working to get campus systems back online, Des Moines Are Community College is confident they are making progress after a cyberattack took school offline for several days.

DMACC President Rob Denson shared in an interview with Local 5 how the attack happened. 

"Apparently, this happens to every company at night," Denson said. "There's just kind of a brute force attack, where they slam this stuff against your system hoping to find a weakness."

Denson said in the overnight hours of June 1, campus officials were notified of an attempt to break into DMACC systems. Immediately, technology officials shut down its systems, significantly diminishing the impact of the attack.

"As of right now, I don't believe any of our key systems are impacted, nothing was seized to the point where we're going to have to buy back our data," Denson said. "We've got extensive backups that are in place, but still, nothing was seized."

The attackers demanded payment from DMACC during the breach, but Denson wouldn't detail how much money was involved in the ransom request. He said the school's cyber insurance provider is handling that.

"They have been working with us day by day, and we literally have meetings every day, with all of our consultants," he said. "All in all, it could have been significantly worse."

The school and others are still investigating the incident, but right now, Denson believes the attackers were able to get into the system through someone opening a bad attachment or file in an email. 

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The attack significantly disrupted life for students and faculty this month. 

Summer classes were delayed, and only last week were online learners able to access their classes.

Denson said the timing of the attack could not have come at a worse period: life was finally getting back to normal after all classes going online because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

"The disappointing thing is that we had just gotten through COVID, and then this happened," said Denson. "Everyone is tired. This has been extremely stressful."

As more parts of DMACC's system go back online and campus life resumes, Denson said campus leadership will be assessing the weak points in its systems to prevent any future attacks.

WATCH: Cybersecurity remains a top priority as virtual meetings extend beyond pandemic 

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