Doug Levin has a great piece on a real case of curious students exploring their K-12 district’s network. Of course, they “shouldn’t” have done that, right? Every adult in the room knows that, and the kids knew it, too. But the temptation was just soooooo great. So do read The Case of ‘Joseph Jones’ and the…
Category: Education Sector
Dallas County Community College District notification of breach
From a notification submitted by the college’s external counsel to the New Hampshire Department of Justice: On October 5, 2017, Dallas County Community College District identified unusual activity in an employee email account. Dallas County Community College District immediately changed the employee’s credentials and launched an investigation, with the assistance of a third-party forensic investigation…
Personal info for 2,000 DC students mistakenly posted online
Fox5 reports: The personal information for 2,000 homeless D.C. students was mistakenly published online and accessible for six months, school officials said. According to D.C. Public Schools, the accidental disclosure took place after a spreadsheet with the students’ information was provided to the D.C. Council. The spreadsheet was then posted on the council’s website. The information included…
IL: Hoopeston Area School District website hacked, false emergency messages sent out
Jordan Crook reports: On Sept. 3, at approximately 3:15 a.m., the Hoopeston Area School District website was hacked with pictures and repeated emergency callout messages to district families. Superintendent Suzzette Hesser reports that the website is now secured and the website address of the person causing the disruption is being investigated. Read more on Hoopeston…
Seven Australian universities targeted in global hacking campaign
Samira Sarraf reports: At least seven Australian universities have been attacked by cyber criminals in a global action targeting researchers. The attack was discovered by Secureworks’ Counter Threat Unit (CTU), which said is similar to previous cyber operations by Cobalt Dickens — a threat group associated with the Iranian Government. Secureworks, which is part of…
Cloquet School District Again Targeted by a Ransomware Attack
Spamfighter reports: Cloquet school district has been hit by a ransomware attack second time in the past three years. The ransomware is a virulent computer malware, which attacks by spreading from one computer to another and locking up the access to the network servers. The ransomware also encrypts the documents and then demands ransom for…