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…
Category: Education Sector
West County provides notice of data breach last year; no identity theft reported so far
Sarah Haas reports: West County School District announced on Friday that, although it had experienced a possible data breach between Oct. 6 and Nov. 20 last year, to date it’s had no reports from anyone affected by that unauthorized access of information on a computer server used for summer school. Read more on Daily Journal…
West Mifflin Area School District recalls student devices for ‘urgent security updates’
I wonder how many districts are going through this same thing this month. Lacretia Wimbley reports: The West Mifflin Area School District is recalling all district-issued student computers for “urgent security updates” beginning Monday. In a letter sent home to parents last week, officials said the school district’s technology department is working with tech vendors to…
Maze attacking some of the country’s largest school districts
On August 27, Clark County School District (CCSD) in Nevada experienced a data security incident that they disclosed the next day. And on September 8, they issued an update. The update noted that the attack was a ransomware attack. Although the district stated it had seen no evidence of misuse, they were notifying everyone to…
Fairfax County Public Schools confirms it was a victim of cyberattack
There was nothing on the homepage of Fairfax County Public Schools in Virginia that would indicate any cyberattack or problem, but the ransomware threat actors known as Maze had listed the FCPS on its leak site this week and provided some files as proof of access/acquisition. DataBreaches.net contacted FCPS to ask them whether they…
Chesterfield County Public Schools battles hackers as school year begins
WAVY reports: Unknown users are entering Chesterfield County Public School virtual classrooms – a trend concerning parents as the school year is barely underway. 8News spoke with the parent of a freshman at Thomas Dale High School who recorded an incident involving an anonymous user in his virtual math class. Nicole Martin says the unidentified…