There’s another update to the “encryption event” first disclosed by Minneapolis Public Schools (MPS) in February.
As of their most recent last update, MPS had stated that they had been able to restore systems and no ransom had been paid. At that time, DataBreaches had not found any gang claiming responsibility for the breach or leaking data but suggested that since the district had not paid ransom, it could likely be only a matter of time before the data did appear. Now it has.
The Medusa ransomware gang has claimed responsibility for the attack on MPS. And not only have they claimed responsibility, they have already leaked a significant amount of proof of claims — proof that includes employee information and student information.
The threat actors seem to be demanding $1 million dollars for them to delete all the data or sell it to any interested buyer. The amount of work they have put into packaging these data is significant — including a .mp4 file that shows file trees and the contents of numerous files.
The threat actors give MPS 9 days more to pay up or presumably all data will be leaked or sold.
MPS’s public disclosures and lack of full transparency since the attack has incurred criticism from this site and others. MPS has been behind the public relations 8-ball on this since February. It’s time for them to really be forthright with employees and families about how bad this breach was.
Update/Note: Other sites are mistakenly reporting that Medusa’s use of an .mp4 to show the scope of their access is a first or a new twist. It is neither. That method has been used a number of times in the past by ALTDOS and DESORDEN groups, as DataBreaches reported.