Large Florida School District Hit by Ransomware Attack

A criminal gang hacked Broward County Public Schools' computer system, which is one of the nation's largest school districts, and encrypted district data. The cyber gang behind the attack is called Conti, and they demanded $40 million in ransom, or they would erase the files and post students' and employees' personal information online. Broward County Public Schools said in a statement Thursday that there is no indication that any personal information has been stolen and that they have made no extortion payment to the ransomware gang.  As a pressure tactic, the cyber gang posted screenshots of its online negotiations with the district to its site on the dark web last week.  According to the hacker's screenshots, the screenshots show that negotiations between the school district and Conti occurred over two weeks.  At the end of the negotiations, the school district did offer to pay $500,000 at which point the ransomware criminals apparently ended negotiations.

ABC News reports: Large Florida School District Hit by Ransomware Attack