Cyber Incident Victim: Florida Gulf Coast University
Date:
May 2020
Location:
United States of America
Summary
A cyberattack disrupted Florida Gulf Coast University's virtual graduation ceremony hosted by StageClip, causing technical malfunctions that mislinked graduate names and photos before crashing the platform. The incident forced cancellation of the live event, disappointing nearly 2,000 participating students and their families who had prepared for the celebration. Attendees expressed distress and frustration, with some family members moved to tears over the disruption of this milestone. The university provided a prerecorded commencement address as an alternative, while both the vendor and institution acknowledged the attack's disheartening impact on all involved parties.
| CIA Posture | Motives | Tactics, Techniques & Procedures |
|---|---|---|
| Available to members | 4 motives | 1 technique |
| Threat Actors | Type | Location |
|---|---|---|
| 0 actors | Available to members | Available to members |
Description
On May 3, 2020, Florida Gulf Coast University's virtual spring commencement ceremony for the Class of 2020 experienced significant disruption due to a cyberattack targeting StageClip, the third-party vendor managing the event. The ceremony was scheduled to begin at 10:00 AM as an online-only celebration due to COVID-19 restrictions, with 1,715 undergraduate students and 219 graduate students awaiting their digital recognition. Five minutes before the scheduled start time, technical issues emerged when the StageClip platform began displaying distorted information, including mismatched student names and photographs. Multiple system glitches compounded these errors, culminating in a complete crash of the StageClip.com website that prevented the ceremony from proceeding as planned. This abrupt failure occurred just as thousands of students and their families had gathered online to participate in the milestone event, leaving them unable to view or engage with the planned graduation content.
The attack caused widespread disappointment among graduates who had prepared for the ceremony despite pandemic-related limitations. Students like Luisa Rodriguez reported wearing full graduation regalia and gathering with family in anticipation, only to encounter confusion and technical failure. Emotional distress was evident, with Rodriguez noting her mother’s tears over the disruption to her academic achievement. Fellow graduate Carli Coppola echoed these sentiments, observing social media complaints from peers about the inability to view their graduation recognition after months of anticipation. In response, Florida Gulf Coast University directed students to a prerecorded commencement address by President Dr. Michael Martin hosted on the university’s website as an alternative. The university acknowledged the disappointment while affirming graduates’ accomplishments, and StageClip characterized the incident as disheartening for all involved parties as they worked to restore their systems. The virtual ceremony was effectively canceled rather than delayed, with no rescheduled event mentioned in available reporting.