Hackers’ Latest Target: School Districts
Schools handle a lot of personal data and may not have strong technology teams, leaving them vulnerable to attacks, experts say.
Some hackers demand ransom; others sweep up personal data for sale to identity thieves. But whatever hackers’ motives, school systems around the country have been the targets of their cyberattacks.
One attack forced the Houston County School District in Dothan, Ala., to delay the first day of school for 6,400 students. Others crippled computer systems at the Syracuse City School District in upstate New York and at three school districts in Louisiana.
Many public institutions, including hospitals, local governmentsand colleges, have been hit with ransomware attacks in recent years, but school districts have proved particularly enticing to hackers because they hold troves of private data and often lack the resources to fend off intruders.
Nearly two-thirds of school districts in the United States serve fewer than 2,500 students, and many do not have a staff member dedicated solely to cybersecurity, according to Keith R. Krueger, the chief executive of the Consortium for School Networking, a group that represents technology employees at primary and secondary schools.
Cybersecurity “is a tremendously growing concern for school districts,” Mr. Krueger said, adding that members of his organization now rank it in annual surveys as their top source of anxiety.
In Louisiana, Gov. John Bel Edwards declared a state of emergency after a virus disabled computers at three school districts, including one in which the virus also knocked out the district office’s phone system.
The three Louisiana attacks — on the schools in Sabine and Morehouse parishes and the city of Monroe — had similar traits, according to Christina Stephens, a spokeswoman for the governor. She declined to discuss the attacks in detail because state and F.B.I. investigations of the incidents are still in progress.
Ms. Stephens said state authorities are working with the districts to eradicate the virus before students return to school in early CONTINUE READING: Hackers’ Latest Target: School Districts - The New York Times
