Jordan Shearer reports: Rochester Public Schools has clarified what it believes opened the door to the large-scale cyberattack that crippled the district’s operations this spring. Superintendent Kent Pekel spoke about the issue on Wednesday, Aug. 23, while giving a presentation about the district’s upcoming technology referendum in November. “We weren’t negligent,” Pekel said. “But clearly one of…
Category: Education Sector
University of Minnesota investigating potential data breach
Dana Thiede reports: The University of Minnesota confirms that it has contacted law enforcement and is investigating a claimed data breach that officials became aware of just a month ago. U of M spokesman Jake Ricker released a statement to KARE 11 saying on July 21 school administrators became aware that an “unauthorized party” claimed…
Bunker Hill Community College discloses May ransomware attack
From the college’s press release of August 18: Bunker Hill Community College (“BHCC”) confirmed today that the college experienced a data incident in May 2023 and will issue notices to affected individuals and relevant state and federal agencies about the incident. On May 23, 2023, BHCC detected irregular activity on certain BHCC systems that was consistent with a…
Listing for sale of U.S. Education Department data may not be what you expect
Yesterday, a listing appeared on a popular hacking forum offering data for sale that were reported to be from the US Department of Education (Ed.gov). According to the listing, the leaked information includes: “ID, UserID, UserName, MobileNumber, LevelID, ConsumerID, Type, FeedBack, SubjectID, Subject, Replied, Token, Completed, Date, Updated, Deleted, and Origin” DataBreaches contacted the…
TN: Cleveland City Schools face ransomware attack
Courtney Goins reports: Cleveland City Schools faced a ransomware attack this week, but it only affected a small number of devices. The school system said they became aware of the issue on Tuesday, August 15. An issue they say is affecting many other school districts as well. […] Sensitive information is secure offsite, and officials…
Prince George’s County Public Schools responding to cyberattack
Fox5 in D.C. reports Prince George’s County Public Schools revealed Monday its network experienced a cyber attack. The August 14 notice on the district’s website reads: August 14, 2023 – Update on PGCPS Network Outage Prince George’s County Public Schools (PGCPS) experienced a cyber attack on the system’s network that was detected early Monday morning, Aug….