Iowa’s largest school district, Des Moines Public Schools, has today revealed that it’s January blackout was due to a ransomware attack.
The school district has also said that it denied paying the ransom amount and has been informing all the victims about the incident while also offering free credit monitoring services to those affected. The district estimates around 6,700 individuals were affected by this incident.
Ransomware Attack on Educational Institutions
Educational institutions are one of the reasonably critical organisations of a country, making them a viable target for ransomware gangs for money extortion. Last year, several ransomware groups targeted 89 educational institutions in the US of various levels and leaked sensitive data of some.
This year, the number has already been to 37(K-12 school districts, as per Emsisoft), with the most notable one being the Des Moines Public Schools. Iowa’s largest school district suffered a ransomware attack on January 9th, forcing the institution to take off all network systems offline immediately and cancel classes.
Though the district soon repurchased them online, the damage was already done. Today, the Des Moines Public Schools came up with a statement confirming the earlier incident as a ransomware attack, where the sensitive data of around 6,700 individuals was affected.
As for what details were exposed or who the ransomware actor was, was not mentioned, it said it’s offering complimentary credit monitoring services to the impacted individuals as a precautionary measure. Also, it has set out instructions on how to place a fraud alert on the credit file of affected people and obtain a free credit report.
Impacted individuals will receive alerts from Des Moines Public Schools district this week, with all the relevant details included. Last year, other Iowa school districts like Cedar Rapids Community School District, the Davenport Community School District and the Linn-Mar Community School District have also been hit by ransomware.
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