One of the lessons here is that at least some of your computers should be Linux. The other is that all important files should be backed up in a secure, independent spot, free from your operating system.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/ransomware-carleton-university-computers-bitcoin-infects-1.3872702
The other lesson appears to be that university level students and faculty, don't know that they should have a offline backup of the research, that they are working on. :-(
My daughter was affected by the Carleton ransomware in that all systems were down yesterday. But according to the CBC news report, only local computers operating Windows were affected. Her computer is a Mac operating the MacOS, so she had no damage. Still, she's a very uninformed computer user and I texted her this morning to make sure she backs up her files NOW!