"Thousands of Schools Impacted After IT Provider Hit by Ransomware"

A leading provider of school website infrastructure has been hit by a ransomware attack, potentially disrupting thousands of global customers.  Finalsite claims to serve over 8000 schools worldwide, offering content management, communications, mobile software, and enrolment software.  Finalsite detected on Tuesday, January 4, that ransomware was present on certain systems in their environment.  A message posted by the firm on Twitter yesterday apologized for the “prolonged outage” customers have been forced to endure as a result of the attack.  Finalsite is currently trying to restore backup systems and is trying to bring their networks back to full performance.  Finalsite claimed it had uncovered no evidence that data had been stolen as part of the raid but admitted that forensic work was still ongoing.  Currently, there is no sign of exactly how many schools have been impacted by the attack, although a Reddit user claimed around 2,200 might have been disrupted.  The Reddit user claimed that many districts, because of the prolonged outage caused by the ransomware, are complaining that they cannot use their emergency notification system to warn their communities about closures due to weather or COVID-19 protocol.

Infosecurity reports: "Thousands of Schools Impacted After IT Provider Hit by Ransomware"