Cybercriminals Strike Schools Amid Pandemic
Just days before the Aug. 3 scheduled start of school, officials at the Athens Independent School District in East Texas received a shock.
Cybercriminals had attacked the district’s entire computer network, encrypting all the data and demanding $50,000 in ransom for its release. Access to everything from teacher communications to student assignments was blocked.
“It was terribly disruptive, to put it mildly,” said Toni Clay, the district’s spokesperson. “We no longer had access to any student information, such as schedules, email addresses, anything that would be stored. Internally, we had no staff information. It was all frozen.”
The plan had been to begin school online for three weeks and then transition to a hybrid model of both virtual and in-person classes. Instead, officials ended up delaying the start of school completely for a week.
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