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…
Category: Education Sector
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…
Aadhaar details of over 60k students on APCCE website
Anupama N reports: Vijayawada: The officials of Commissionerate of College Education, Andhra Pradesh, have put the privacy of thousands of students at risk by publishing their Aadhaar card details on the website. In a major goof up by the officials, details of 64,807 students have been put up on the website, for the viewing of…
AU: Melbourne student health records posted online in ‘appalling’ privacy breach
The Australian Associated Press reports: The personal records of hundreds of Melbourne high school students have been mistakenly published, sparking an investigation into an “appalling” privacy breach. The Victoria education minister, James Merlino, said his department would launch an inquiry into the breach at Strathmore secondary college in the city’s north-west. Read more on The…
TPS recovers confidential student information found in dumpster behind Tulsa school
Samuel Hardiman and Reece Ristau report: Tulsa Public Schools may have violated multiple current or former students’ privacy rights afforded under federal law if it failed to protect confidential student records a Tulsa woman said she found in large metal trash receptacles behind McKinley Elementary School on Sunday evening. The records include gifted and talented…
How K–12 School Districts Can Best Prepare for Ransomware Recovery
Karen Scarfone reports: No matter how many layers of security school districts put in place to stop ransomware, it’s inevitable that, at some point, an endpoint will be infected. Since January 2016, there have been 355 cybersecurity-related incidents against K–12 schools, including ransomware attacks, according to the K–12 Cybersecurity Resource Center. In 2016, 60 percent…