Public school districts on both coasts hit by ransomware

Two more public school districts have announced they were hit by ransomware. Visalia Unified School District in California  announced on Tuesday that the ransomware had impacted the operation of the district’s IT systems. YourCentralValley.com reported: The district said many IT systems are offline until further notice and that local and federal law enforcement have been notified and are aware of the incident. District officials say that class will continue for students both in-person and online despite the ransomware attack. DataBreaches.net did not find a copy of the district’s press release, but the Visalia Delta-Times reported that the release did not specify if any student or teacher information was compromised as a result of the attack. The district also had not disclosed whether there was any ransom demand or who the threat actors are. As of the time of this publication, the district’s name has not shown up on any dedicated leak sites maintained by a number of ransomware threat actors. Across the country, Rockland Public Schools in Massachusetts have also reported a ransomware incident. As previously reported by Boston25, the district posted an announcement on their web site yesterday: RANSOMWARE NOTIFICATION Rockland Public Schools MAY 18, 2021 Dear RPS Community, Unfortunately we discovered this morning that we were the victim of a ransomware attack.  Fortunately no student chromebooks were affected and they remain fully functional and safe for our students to use. We are working with the appropriate authorities to determine the extent of the breach and to determine our path to restoration. School will continue as scheduled but staff will not have access to their laptops or desktops for the next few days, so email may be limited. There is no access to ASPEN (X2). Attendance and grading will continue manually and will be posted as soon as practical. We appreciate your understanding and patience as we navigate this situation.  We have faced many challenges over this past year and are confident that we can overcome this latest challenge the same way we have overcome the rest, together as Bulldogs! Jane E. Hackett Business Administrator Ransomware Notification: May 18, 2021 Ransomware Notification: May 18, 2021 (Portuguese) Reporting by Chum1ng0; additional content and editing by DissentDataBreaches.netRead More