Ransomware Has Disrupted Almost 1,000 Schools In the US This Year

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Motherboard: So far this year, almost 1,000 schools across the country have suffered from a ransomware attack, and in some cases had classes disrupted because of it, according to tallies by Emsisoft, a cybersecurity company that specializes in tracking and investigating ransomware attacks, and another cybersecurity firm Recorded Future. Brett Callow, a researcher at Emsisoft shared the list with Motherboard. It includes 73 school districts, comprising 985 schools. Callow said that it's very likely there's some schools that are missing from the list, meaning the total number of victims is likely higher than 1,000. The list includes schools such as the Mesquite Independent School District in Texas, which comprises 49 different schools; the Haverhill Public Schools in Massachusetts, which comprises 16 schools; and the Visalia Unified School District in California, which comprises 41 schools.

'There is a huge jump in ransomware attacks hitting schools starting in 2019 and that trend is accelerating,' Allan Liska, a researcher at cybersecurity firm Recorded Future who tracks ransomware, told Motherboard in an online chat. Schools are getting hit every other week, and 2021 was worse than 2020, according to Liska, who said that last year he and his company catalogued 56 ransomware attacks impacting almost 700 schools. 'The thing is, as bad as it is right now it will likely get worse before it gets better. While most ransomware attacks are not targeted there are two sectors that ransomware groups do seem to enjoy going after are healthcare and schools,' Liska said. 'It seems like schools are basically proving ground for ransomware actors to test out their skills. Schools pay significantly less in average ransom than most sectors (when they pay, which is rare), so the ransomware groups are not going after schools for the money.'

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