Alanna Durkin Richer repeorts: Some K-12 public schools are racing to improve protection against the threat of online attacks, but lax cybersecurity means thousands of others are vulnerable to ransomware gangs that can steal confidential data and disrupt operations. Since a White House conference in August on ransomware threats, dozens of school districts have signed up for free…
Category: Education Sector
Is a new ransomware group’s listing for Decatur Independent School District linked to an attack in September?
Decatur Independent School District in Texas was added to Inc Ransomware’s leak site on Wednesday. There is no summary or description of what the threat actors claim to have done or acquired. There is no countdown clock or timer, and there is no indication of how much money is being demanded. There is a proofpack….
Georgia School District Goes Offline After Suspicious Activity
Leon Stafford reports: Henry County Schools Superintendent Mary Elizabeth Davis said Tuesday leaders continue to investigate “suspicious activity” that has resulted in the district restricting Internet access since last week. In a video posted to YouTube, Davis did not say what activity led the south metro Atlanta district to decide to take its Internet offline…
Data security breach at Beaverton School District
KGW reports: The Beaverton School District has been hit by a cybersecurity breach that may have compromised student passwords, the district announced in a message posted to its website and sent to parents Tuesday evening. Student passwords to email accounts, Google documents, Canva and other platforms all may have been compromised. The district said it…
Minnesota schools turn to voters, plead for lawmaker help in fending off cyberattacks
Dana Ferguson reports: Faced with a growing threat of cybersecurity breaches, school districts around the country and in Minnesota are turning to local taxpayers and state officials for help in building up their defenses. Voters in at least 17 communities last week weighed ballot questions letting local districts raise tax levies for cybersecurity improvements; more…
Time’s up, Sunday edition: Some Jeffco Public Schools data was leaked, some data was put up for sale
As first reported on DataBreaches on Friday, SingularityMD indicated that they would be leaking or selling Jeffco Public Schools data. They followed through. In one thread on a popular hacking forum, they leaked what they claim is a 500 MB csv file for an AD Export from November 2020. The leak contains “includes hashed passwords,…