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NJ School District Hit With Ransomware-For-Bitcoins Scheme
An anonymous reader sends news that unidentified hackers are
demanding 500 bitcoins, currently worth about $128,000, from administrators of a New Jersey school district. Four elementary schools in Swedesboro-Woolwich School District, which enroll more than 1,700 students, are now locked out of certain tasks: "Without working computers, teachers cannot take attendance, access phone numbers or records, and students cannot purchase food in cafeterias. Also, [district superintendent Dr. Terry C. Van Zoeren] explained, parents cannot receive emails with students grades and other information." According to this blog post from security company BatBlue, the district has been forced to postpone the Common Core-mandated PARCC state exams, too. Small comfort: "Fortunately the Superintendent told CBS 3’s Walt Hunter the hackers, using a program called Ransomware, did not access any personal information about students, families or teachers." Perhaps the administrators can take heart: Ransomware makers are, apparently, starting to focus more on product support; payment plans are probably on the way.
...they went after these criminals.
If our government actually did something about stuff like this, I think people would believe in their government a bit more, but as it stands, it seems like the NSA and such only want to either spy on us or topple governments that don't tow the line for the US.
I cannot imagine that finding these criminals is beyond the abilities of the US Government, it just seems like they don't even try.
The thing is, if they did, you would never know about it. It may seem like they don't even try, and they might not be, but they could also be defeating 95% of it. With a mission that is by design clandestine, no one may ever know until our kids get a peek at the public records dump 50 years from now.
My wife's district uses Microsoft Dynamics, and the piece of garbage, that has never printed a correct pay check, lost its activation so the district could no longer print pay checks, accept payments for lunch, pay bills, etc.. They couldn't even look-up contact info for vendors to call them to give them a heads-up about the late payments. Microsoft really fucks over people with their activation garbage. This isn't like the rest of us that have to suffer with the Office garbage losing its activation so we can't open a Word doc. This is Microsoft holding large organizations hostage with demands for more money. They changed their support fees after the fact. I'm still trying to fix the problems caused with my wife's delayed deposit and NSF fees.