Ransomware Hits 20 Schools in Texas District

  • 10 April 2016
  • 9 replies
  • 3399 views

Userlevel 7
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Now this is a topic that should be read and should also be taken as a lesson to us all.
 

Schools manage to recover data thanks to backup files

 
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Apr 9, 2016 21:01 GMT  ·  By Catalin Cimpanu Representatives of the North East Independent School District, in Texas, USA, have admitted that many of their school campuses have fallen victim to the recent wave of ransomware infections that's been plaguing the US and most parts of the globe.
 
According to local TV station KENS5, the infections happened all through the last two months and affected two of the school district's departments, and 20 school campuses.
 
There are no details on what type of ransomware hit these institutions. School officials say that the ransomware infections managed to lock around 2.5 TB of information.
 
Full Article

9 replies

Userlevel 7
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This is saddening that a school of all places managed to get infected with this. I know that any type of system could fall victim to randomware but I just feel sorry for the poor students who may have lost coursework due to this.
Userlevel 6
>Cryptolocker ate my homework
 
😃
Userlevel 7
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You managed to turn this SN article from serious to funny!:D ? ROFL!
Userlevel 7
An excellent illustration of what we have been saying here for many, many months...that to beat ransomware you need, on top of reliable security software, to make sure that one's data is either backed up securely or your disk(s) are imaged regularly. That is the only surefire way to deal with an infection, should the miscreants manage to get through the first line defences.
 
It cannot be said enough, so thanks for posting, Jasper. ;)
Userlevel 7
The key word is "Back Up" ones data,thank heavens they did back up their files.
Userlevel 7
Indeed, I think that someone over there had the good sense to make sure that they were covered...and hopefully the publicity will highlight the appropriate action for those, who have not yet done, to take ASAP. 
Userlevel 7
I find this very intriguing due to the fact that from 2013 through 2015 I was the technology director for a school and also fighting a managed service provider that I found was mildly inept.
 
When I first arived, I cleared about 16 or so computers from infections that Sophos hadn't caught and convinced local administration to get Webroot. Also implemented continuous backups of the servers onto Amazon S3. Sophos was still in play and still caught text files often, but Webroot cleaned up the original infections and did the heavy lifting after that.
 
With  Webroot, seven Crypto<stuff> infections were killed after they bypassed Sophos. One managed to encrypt some data on the servers, which folks know Webroot sadly can't help against crypto on shares, but the S3 backups (a whopping $2.80 a month after $79 in software costs for CloudBerry) covered that. Another managed to bypass immediate detection by Webroot but journalling rolled it back.
 
On local machines, Webroot had my back. Just drive shares were a problem, but only for a few minutes.
 
And as an added bonus, I was able to use Webroot to block students from installing unprioviledged items like Spotify and Minecraft on school computers and avoid costly image-locking software.
I am a Dell Engineer, and was part of the team that had to revive MedStar's disaster.

2000 servers
35,000 wxstations
Userlevel 7
Badge +56
Wow that sounds like no fun at all. How long did it take to get them all back up and running?

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