Hive Ransomware group demands £500000 from School in England

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Hive Ransomware group has reportedly locked down a school from digital access and is demanding £500,000 to free up data from encryption. Yes, what is being read is true as Wootton Upper School in Bedfordshire-part of Wootton Academy Trust was victimized by the file encrypting malware spreading gang and are adamant in their demand.

Kimberley College, also a part of Wootton Academy Trust was also victimized in the incident as the threat actors have messaged the parents, students and staff about the compromised network and threatened them they will sell stolen details of them such as home addresses, bank details, medical records of students and staff and student psychology reviews to interested parties on the dark web.

Wootton released a press statement that the compromise was true, but its impact was limited as the group of threat actors (Hive- yet to be confirmed) could only access some syllabus related data, unlike what is being said about sensitive details in circulated messages.

What’s surprising about the incident is that the Hive Group has details that Wootton Educational Trust is covered under a cyber insurance and so is demanding the authorities to pay up huge i.e., £500,000.

Coming to the other news, a recent study made by Palo Alto Networks states that ransomware groups are targeting companies operating in Real estate and finance sector the most, along with education sectors.

The analysis also included the fact that one ransomware victim was appearing on a leak site every four hours and the situation can worsen in coming days as there has been a sophistication in social engineering attacks as it is proving as a profitable attack vector for cyber criminals.

 

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Naveen Goud is a writer at Cybersecurity Insiders covering topics such as Mergers & Acquisitions, Startups, Cyber Attacks, Cloud Security and Mobile Security

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