One lesson that should have been learned from past years is that ransomware groups will attack schools right as they get ready to open for the school year because districts may feel more pressured to pay so they can open. So far this week, DataBreaches has spotted ransomware attack reports on two k-12 school districts and one college.
K-12 Districts
On August 22, WFAA in Texas reported:
The Mansfield Independent School District has been hit with a ransomware attack that’s affected many of the district’s systems, officials said Monday night.
In a statement, the district said the cyberattack impacted systems that used internet, such as the website, email and phone systems. The district did not specify when the attack happened.
Read more at WFAA. On August 23, the attack was described as a ransomware attack, but without any word on who the attacker(s) might be, what any ransom demand was, and whether any personal information had been compromised.
Meanwhile, in Pennsylvania, Moon Area School District was working to recover from a ransomware attack there as school got ready to re-open for the year. Early reports indicated that the district believes the attack only affected staff and faculty computers. Update: On September 1, Vice Society claimed responsibility for this attack.
Post-Secondary (College)
Sierra College in Rocklin, California also reported being hit with a ransomware attack on August 20. The school was able to open Monday with almost all systems operational. This was the second ransomware attack this college experienced. A previous one was in May, 2021.