Florida-based School Networks are extremely vulnerable to cyber attacks, says a research study made by United Data Technologies. The Doral-based cyber security firm also confirmed that at least 4 Florida school district networks were hacked by cyber crooks to slip into other sensitive government systems, including state voting systems just before the US 2016 Polls.
The recent study exposed the fact that hackers succeeded in infecting the network system of 4 schools with malware and then started to test the defenses of the school websites. At one point, they even posted the photos of someone dressed as an ISIS fighter on 2 school district websites. This move was initiated to disclose their presence to the world.
Researchers at the United Data Technologies (UDT) discovered that the hackers who launched the cyber attack weren’t just looking for the names of the kids and their social security numbers, but were also looking to gain access to other government portals through the school logs.
As per the details disclosed to our Cybersecurity Insiders, the group of hackers hailed from Morocco and was not from Moscow as stated in other media sources. But the researchers of UDT admit that the said hacking group could constitute state funded actors of some foreign nation secretly working from Morocco.
In 2015, New Jersey-based school districts were hit by a cyber attack where hackers held data for a ransom of $500 bitcoins or $128,000.
In a separate incident recorded that year, three high school seniors from New York were arrested for hacking a school network to change grades, and schedules.
But UDT states that the recent hacking of Florida-based school districts which took place just before the US Polls held last year could be more serious than thought. The security firm is busy finding facts on the consequences of the cyber attack launched on the schools based in Florida.
United Data Technologies says that it has evidence that some school districts in Texas, Washington, New York, and New Jersey could have been compromised by the same hackers. And so the company warns that all such vulnerabilities exposed in its research could trigger extreme cyber security concerns in near future.
More details are awaited!
