Classes have been cancelled for a fourth day at Des Moines Area Community College due to what DMACC officials call a “data security incident.” House Speaker Pat Grassley today said the Information Technology Committee he established in the House in December spent the past few months working on the governor’s broadband initiative, but will now focus on cyber security issues.
“As you’ve seen more and more incidents happen across the country, whether it’s pipelines, meatpacking — any of those kinds of critical infrastructure needs, we have a situation in the House where we have a committee that will make that part of what they will look at and be working on between now and the upcoming session,” Grassley said this morning during an online news conference hosted by the Iowa Capitol Press Association.
DMACC’s president said in a written statement that it does not appear student or faculty data has been compromised by the security breach. The school has outside security experts and the FBI working on the case, but has not described it as a ransomware attack.