Middlesex County Administrator Matt Walker notified supervisors on Tuesday, September 3, that the New Kent and King and Queen public school systems have had “cyber ransomware” attacks and their school records are being held ransom.
Hackers have locked all of the files in those school systems, Walker said. The New Kent and King and Queen files located on the school internal hard drives were encrypted, so school officials are unable to access the files without paying the ransom, said Walker.
The information in those files included student names, parent names, addresses, phone numbers, and email addresses—information that other hackers can use to attack individual computers.
New Kent officials reported that the cyber criminals demanded the ransom be paid in Bitcoin, a form of digital crypto-currency, because it is nearly impossible to trace back to an original source.
The New Kent School System notified the FBI, and also reported to the parents they do not believe any personal identification such as social security numbers were taken.
“Middlesex County has taken every precaution to ensure our data and computers are protected by employing virus scanning software and daily backups to mitigate down time in the event of a catastrophic event like the one that struck New Kent,” said Walker.
“Our security protocols were audited recently by the FBI and state police and passed with flying colors,” he said. “Nevertheless, we can always do better and the threat we face daily is evolving. Companies like Sony and even the White House have been hacked in the past, so vigilance is required to ensure we don’t suffer a similar fate. Please note that many, if not most, of these attacks are enabled by end-users clicking on poisoned links embedded in emails.
“You (supervisors) may receive an email that appears legitimate and yet there is something fishy about the content,” said Walker, “as many hackers are based in foreign countries and the sender may communicate in a way that indicates English is not their first language.
“Typically, these types of emails will not include viral attachments. Instead, the email will contain a link that directs the user to an infected website. As a precaution, and before clicking, position your mouse over the suspect line (again without clicking) and you should see the destination URL pop up. If you suspect a link of being fraudulent or potentially dangerous, let Kevin (Gentry) know. Once you click the link, the damage is often done. So if something looks suspicious, report it immediately. When in doubt before opening any suspect email or file call Kevin,” he said.
