PROVIDENCE – An outside vendor that has a contract with Rhode Island School of Design sustained a data breach and the local arts college is one of the 160 colleges affected by the ransomware attack.
In a statement Wednesday to the school community, RISD said that Blackbaud – a software service provider for fundraising offices within higher education and nonprofits – had their systems broken into over the course of three months, starting Feb. 7 through May 20. The attack saw the removal of files that contained personal information, RISD said.
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RISD said the compromised files may have included constituents’ demographics, their degree information, RISD Museum memberships, and other internal information related to the arts college and the museum’s fundraising and engagement activities. Credit card information, social security numbers and banking information were not taken, RISD said, because the college does not store such data in the Blackbaud databases.
Blackbaud also informed RISD that, based on an investigation by law enforcement, the company has “no reason to believe” the data was misused or be disseminated. But, Blackbaud hired a third-party security services to indefinitely monitor for such activity.
“RISD remains in regular contact with Blackbaud regarding the details of this incident, and we are continuing to monitor their response,” RISD said.
James Bessette is the PBN special projects editor, and also covers the nonprofit and education sectors. You may reach him at Bessette@PBN.com. You may also follow him on Twitter at @James_Bessette.
