Over half a million students and 70,000 school and district employees in the Los Angeles school district had to change their passwords over the weekend, due to a breach of the school district’s computer systems.
The Los Angeles school is the second largest group of public schools in the United States.
A ransomware attack made schools all over the country even more aware of the vulnerability of schools and businesses to cyber breaches.
Even the White House and the National Security Council were alarmed and got involved.
The breach, discovered Saturday night, is called a “ransomware attack,” because money is demanded for data return, but in this case, according to the district’s superintendent, no money was demanded… yet.
Schools in the district opened on Tuesday, as planned.
This year alone, 26 US school districts, including Los Angeles, as well as several colleges and universities, have been hit by ransomware attacks. Eight school districts have been attacked since August 1.
An official connected to the Biden administration said that the federal government is involved in investigating the incident, and the school did not pay a ransom, but there was no response from the government or the official about what was stolen and damaged.
Having everyone change their passwords seems to indicate their personal information was in danger of being used. However, officials said that employee healthcare and payroll information had not been affected by the attack.
Investigators believe the California attack came from a country, or countries outside the US. Reportedly, most ransomware attacks are from Russians and the Russian government doesn’t crack down on them.
According to CNN, a cyber gang known as “Vice Society” has been targeting schools, as per reports from the FBI, US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, and the MS-ISAC, a cyberthreat-sharing body.
“It is the No. 1 threat to our safety,” said Michel Moore, chief of the Los Angeles Police Department. “It is an invisible foe and it is tireless.”
