Webb Institute in Glen Cove hit with 'criminal cyberattack,' school says

A "criminal cyberattack" targeting the Webb Institute in Glen Cove, a private marine engineering college, affected the data of more than 1,500 people, according to school officials.

The breach occurred in September 2024 and school officials began working with "third-party experts to take prompt and appropriate action to investigate and respond to the incident," Kaye Lin, the school's director of communications and marketing, said in an email.

The school gave preliminary notice to people who may have been affected by the cyberattack on Sept. 30, 2024. Days after the attack, the Webb Institute restored backup systems and took measures to address the security breach, Lin said.

"Through the extensive investigation that followed, Webb ultimately determined that the incident impacted data related to 1,520 persons," Lin said.

The school did not elaborate on the nature of the breach or what type of data was accessed.

The Office of the Maine Attorney General's website, which tracks data security breaches affecting state residents, described an "external system breach (hacking)." There were 36 Maine residents affected by the breach, the agency's website said.

The site links to a sample letter the Webb Institute sent to affected individuals. The letter said Webb was "the subject of a criminal cyberattack" and that the school took steps including "data mining and manually reviewing the contents of those files to determine whether they contained personally identifiable information ... and to identify the data subjects to whom that" information pertained.

Cyberattacks against educational institutions are on the rise, said Steve Morgan, founder of Cybersecurity Ventures, a Northport-based cybersecurity firm. 

"Schools tend to lean toward security awareness training for their employees because it's the least expensive thing they can do, and it is effective," Morgan said. But, he added, there is "still a lot of dated technology that is prone to attack."

A 2025 survey by the nonprofit Center for Internet Security found 80% of K-12 schools had reported a cyber incident. Long Island school districts reported 28 cyber incidents last year, Newsday reported in May.

In September 2022, Suffolk County sustained a crippling cyberattack that exposed the vulnerability of its technological infrastructure. The ransomware attack triggered reforms designed to strengthen cybersecurity. 

The Webb Institute, located on a 26-acre campus, typically enrolls about 100 students annually. Tuition is free, as every student who attends receives a full-tuition scholarship, according to the school's website. The school's main building was built in 1912 on what was once the estate of Herbert L. Pratt, a former president of Standard Oil Company of New York.

By Joseph Ostapiuk

joseph.ostapiuk@newsday.com@OstapiukJ