A ransomware attack that took place on the database of Buffalo Public Schools (BPS) on Friday last week is reportedly being investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation(FBI) says a recently posted tweet from the school district. And since the digital infrastructure has been disrupted, the school pupils may witness a holiday for the next day or two this week beginning Monday( March 15th,2021).
“We continue to work with our team of experts to defend our information systems and will be posting periodic updates regarding developments”, says a tweet from Buffalo Public Schools.
Highly placed sources say that the hackers who induced the malware might be demanding a ransom in the range of $100,000 to $300,000 and might increase the payment victim doeskin show interest in their cryptocurrency demands.
School authorities say that the remote learning classes were canceled on Friday and might also get impacted on Monday even though the IT department is trying its best to restore the data at the earliest.
Some of the systems belonging to the teaching and learning department have been restored through backups and all measures were taken to prevent any reinfection chances of the malware on the IT infrastructure.
Dr. Kriner Cash, the superintendent of the BPS has stated that an emergency fund of $40,000 has been approved to Grey Castle to start the investigation.
No details on the ransomware variant that targeted the systems are available to the press at this moment.
Note 1- A ransomware is a kind of malware that encrypts a database until a ransom is paid.
Note 2- As per a report released by K-12 Cybersecurity Resource Center, more than 350 educational institutes and school districts were hit by ransomware in 2019, 3 times more than a year earlier.
Note 3- A file-encrypting malware attack has disrupted the digital operations of Victor Central School District in Rochester for almost two weeks early this year.
