Bob Kasarda reports on a case in Indiana: VALPARAISO — A 13-year-old Benjamin Franklin Middle School student was arrested and faces a felony charge of hacking into the school district’s computer system in the wake of ongoing disruptions in online learning, police confirmed Friday morning. The boy, who was taken to the Porter County Juvenile…
Category: Education Sector
NC: Guilford Technical Community College hit with ransomware
From a statement on Guilford Technical Community College‘s web site that seems to have been removed: On Sunday, Sept. 13, 2020, GTCC had an unauthorized access to the college network. Campuses were shut down for Monday, Sept. 14, 2020 to limit the extent of the unauthorized access and determine its impact. As of today’s update…
TX: School district reaches out to FBI following cyberattack
KRIS-TV reports: Administrators with the Skidmore-Tynan Independent School District reported they have reached out to the Federal Bureau of Investigation following a cyberattack. School administrators said they were victims of a cyberattack Tuesday afternoon. “(We have) given the FBI everything they need to investigate the incident,” school officials said. Read more on KRIS-TV. h/t, @Chum1ng0
Texas Teams Up with FireEye to Tackle Ransomware
This may help some Texas school districts and other public agencies in Texas. I usually don’t post press releases that promote commercial services, but am making an exception because I like the idea that a state is trying to provide more proactive and defensive support to school districts as well as other state agencies: FireEye,…
NY: Floral Park-Bellerose school district hit with ransomware attack
Elliott Weld reports: Floral Park-Bellerose school district officials announced at their Board of Education meeting Monday that the district’s computer system had been infected with a type of malware known as “ransomware,” impeding its progress in delivering virtual education to students. Read more on The Island Now. The report does not indicate what type of…
School districts in New Jersey and California join the list of ransomware victims
Schools are off to a rough start this year. Apart from grappling with edtech and security issues in light of the increased use of virtual learning, school districts are being increasingly attacked by ransomware groups. These ransomware threat actors pose a double threat: they not only encrypt a district’s system(s) to make functioning impossible unless…