MSUM administrator discusses why university waited to announce ransomware attack more than two weeks after incident began

(Fargo, ND) -- WDAY Radio asked an administrator at MSUM why the university waited until today to announce that the school was hit by a ransomware attack February 1st. 

"When we engaged our incident response vendor, their first advice to us was not to say anything about the cause. First because it could embolden the attackers to continue trying to get at our network," said Kirsten Johnson, the university's Associate Vice President of Communications and University Relations.

She says they also couldn't speculate that the school was targeted by ransomware until they knew that was the case.  

Johnson says roughly 65 percent of the schools network capabilities are now restored. 

She says the school did not pay ransom. 

The incident remains under investigation.