It’s been a rough year for municipalities, and it’s only likely to get worse. While we read more and more reports of school districts becoming victims of ransomware attacks that delayed school openings or caused school closings, we have also read numerous reports of municipal police and law enforcement sites being defaced, and other municipal…
Search Results for: ransomware
Schumer calls for federal response to school cyberattacks
Justin Murphy reports: Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., called on Congress and the FBI on Wednesday to help school districts and other local government bodies threatened by increasingly common and sophisticated cyberattacks. The issue has put school districts across New York on guard, particularly after the Syracuse City School District was hit with ransomware this year. The district paid a $50,000…
CT: Police investigate attempted Sherman School data breach
Kendra Baker reports: State Police are investigating the discovery of ransomware on Sherman School computer servers last month. Ransomware is a software designed to deny access to data or a computer system until a ransom is paid. The malware was found in the school’s computer system Aug. 16, said Jeff Melendez, superintendent-principal of the Sherman…
Student surprise: malware masked as textbooks and essays
From the Kaspersky Team, this useful alert: We have written on numerous occasions about how easy it is to inadvertently pick up some nasty stuff when you try to download popular TV shows or game cheats. However, cybercriminals do not just limit themselves to entertainment products. You can also stumble upon a virus when looking…
New malware Xwo can swipe all your credentials at once
What Xwo Does Xwo is not your typical ransomware that holds your data hostage nor cryptocurrency miner that takes command of your processing power for its own devices. Instead it scans systems looking for saved credentials and exposed services. Everything it finds, it sends back to the control server. Xwo is not the thief stealing…
Two more school districts that fell prey to malware attacks
Two more to add to any list you may be keeping: First, Spectrum News reports on an incident in New York involving the Watertown City School District: The Watertown School District is the latest school system dealing with a cyber attack. The district released a statement on Monday saying that over the weekend, they experienced…