Julie McMahon reports:
Ransomware caused the Syracuse City School District’s week-long computer outage, a source said.
The district’s internet has had systemwide outages since an “event” early Monday morning, officials said. Officials released little information about the investigation and cause of the computer outages. In a statement Friday afternoon, a spokesman said an “attack froze the district from accessing our own systems.”
Read more on Syracuse.com.
The attackers have reportedly been increasing their demands as the district fails to pay the ransom while continuing to be unable to access their system. The insurance carrier is reportedly urging the district to pay up before the demands become even higher, but the district hasn’t decided whether to pay or not.
All of this becoming public is obviously good news for attackers and potential attackers who will watch and learn whether increasing ransom demands is a useful strategy likely to encourage insurers to pay off.