Eye on America: Ransomware attacks on schools threaten student data
August 26, 2024 – Published and Aired on CBS Evening News
Imagine a criminal gaining unrestricted access to your child’s most private information — medical records, Social Security numbers and even details about their daily bus ride to school. This alarming scenario is becoming a reality for a growing number of families as sophisticated cybercriminals increasingly target schools across the United States, holding their computer systems and private data hostage.
In the second-largest school district in Arizona, a pre-dawn ransomware attack in January of 2023 left the Tucson Unified School District crippled.
“It was completely dark and blank because everything was down,” said Rabih Hamadeh, the district’s executive director of technology services. His team discovered that nearly every printer in the district had suddenly started printing ransom notes. The attackers, identifying themselves as the “Royal” cyber gang, had encrypted and copied critical data, threatening to publish it online unless a large ransom was paid.
Tucson Unified School District did not pay the ransom, but schools were closed for two weeks while Hamadeh’s team worked to repair and restore their systems. An investigation conducted by CBS News in partnership with GuidePoint Security revealed that at least some private student and employee information from the district had indeed been leaked to the dark web, where it could be sold to the highest bidder.
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