The Growing Concern About School Record Hacking

The confidential documents stolen from schools and dumped online by ransomware gangs are raw, intimate and graphic. They describe student sexual assaults, psychiatric hospitalizations, abusive parents, truancy — even suicide attempts. 

Cybercriminals are not only seeking ransom payouts but are also targeting students’ personal information, including credit details, assessments, grades, health records, and more. The potential socio-emotional impact on students, coupled with financial implications, adds urgency to addressing cybersecurity challenges in schools. 

The sheer volume of devices and users in educational settings creates a complex environment prone to human failure. Challenges include phishing attacks, exploitation of vulnerabilities, and the rising ransomware threat, leading to downtime, recovery efforts, and paid ransoms. 

“Please do something,” begged a student in one leaked file, recalling the trauma of continually bumping into an ex-abuser at a school in Minneapolis. Other victims talked about wetting the bed or crying themselves to sleep.

Complete sexual assault case folios containing these details were among more than 300,000 files dumped online in March after the 36,000-student Minneapolis Public Schools refused to pay a $1 million ransom. 

Other exposed data included medical rec

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