Los Angeles officials reported that hackers targeted the second-largest school district in the US. The authorities said that the attack happened over the Labor Day weekend.
LA School District Hacked
According to Bleeping Computer, the Los Angeles Unified or LAUSD, which is the second-largest school district in the US, disclosed that a ransomware attack hit its Information Technology systems over the weekend.
The LAUSD enrolls more than 640,000 students in kindergarten through 12th grade. It also includes 31 smaller municipalities and several Los Angeles County unincorporated sections.
The school district first revealed the district-wide issue after discovering that the hackers disrupted access to LAUSD systems, including its email servers.
According to the officials, the cyber-attack was a disruption to LAUSD's system infrastructure, and they did not expect major problems with teaching or other services like transportation and food.
The LAUSD operations will be delayed or modified.
Identifying the Attacks
According to The Guardian, the hackers have targeted facilities systems, which involve information about private-sector contractor payments, which are available via records requests instead of confidential details like health, payroll, and other data.
Authorities believe that the hack originated internationally and have identified three possible countries where it may have come from, though LAUSD's Superintendent Alberto Carvalho would not say which countries he may have been involved in.
The district said that the investigation and response regarding the hack involved the White House, the US Department of Education, the FBI, and the Department of Homeland Security's Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency.
The attack on the district comes as ransomware is on the rise, targeting the education sector now more than ever.
In August and September 2021, 57% of ransomware incidents reported to the FBI involved K-12 schools, compared to 28% of incidents from January through July.
In 2021 around 56% of K-12 schools and 64% of higher education organizations surveyed by digital security firm Sophos reported being hit by ransomware.
Darren Guccione, CEO and co-founder of the cybersecurity firm Keeper Security, said that the cyber-attack against LAUSD is the latest example of the threat that cybercriminals pose to everyone. Guccione pointed out that no one is safe from cybercrime, even schoolchildren.
The increase has come as the COVID-19 pandemic forced much of the education sector online, while schools struggle to keep up the security practices.
The FBI released an advisory to schools in 2021 and suggested more training of employees to monitor networks for any suspicious activities.
Matthew Warner, the co-founder and chief technology officer at Blumira, said that schools are an attractive target for hackers for numerous reasons.
Schools usually lack funding for full-time IT staff, and a lot of students use their own unsecured devices, giving hackers more opportunities to breach networks.
Warner said that most IT leaders in education operate on a shoestring budget. This means that a lower budget in education makes it difficult to hire cybersecurity talent without a competitive salary to offer.
Ransomware Attack on Schools
According to The Verge, a ransomware attack in Albuquerque, New Mexico, forced schools to close for two days in January.
Even though the FBI suggests schools not to pay any ransom, around 45% of K-12 victims and 50% of higher education reported paying the ransom to reinstate lost data.
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Written by Sophie Webster
