Ransomware hit Guilderland Central School District near Albany

Officials revealed that the school district near Albany was hit by a ransomware attack that forced students in grades 7 through 12 into all-remote learning on Monday.

The Guilderland Central School District near Albany was hit by a ransomware attack that forced students in grades 7 through 12 into all-remote learning on Monday, the news was confirmed by district officials.

The School District confirmed on its website that it was the victim of a malware attack that encrypted information on some of its systems.

“The district is working diligently with specialists to investigate the incident, confirm its impact on our systems, and to restore full functionality as quickly as possible. Law enforcement and all other appropriate authorities were immediately notified.” reads the announcement published by the Guilderland Central School District.

“The district is also actively investigating to determine whether any sensitive data may have been impacted. At this time, they have not confirmed that any sensitive data was compromised, but plan to keep the community updated as more information becomes available.”

The district reported the security breach to the authorities and is investigating the extent of the security breach with the help of specialists. At the time of this writing, it is not clear if threat actors have stolen personnel or student data.

The district plans to restore the operations by Tuesday.

School districts continue to be a privileged target of the Conti ransomware gang, a few weeks ago hackers breached Florida’s Broward County Public Schools and demanded a $40 million ransom.

In December, Baltimore County Schools closed after a ransomware attack, in October Springfield Public Schools district was hit with ransomware and in September Fairfax County Public Schools was breached by Maze ransomware.

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Pierluigi Paganini

(SecurityAffairs – hacking, School District)