According to Cointelegraph, 3 American Universities have been infected with ransomware by a group of hackers over the past week. The hackers have targeted the University of California San Francisco (UCSF), Michigan State University and the Columbia College of Chicago. The hacking group, called NetWalker, claims to have stolen highly sensitive data, including student names, their social security numbers and other critical information. 

The hackers are asking the universities to pay a high fee in Bitcoin in order to stop them from releasing the information. In fact, they've already began leaking some of MSU's information after the University refused to pay the ransom.

This unsettling news follow a long series of ransomware related attacks against universities across America. According to Emisoft, there have been over 89 different universities/colleges that have been hit with ransomware attacks. These types of cyberattacks have started to become more and more common and poses a major threat to institutions across the world.