Schools and colleges on the Isle of Wight hit by ransomware
"Significant implications" are expected as some primary schools are forced to delay the start of next term
Colleges and schools on the Isle of Wight have had their data encrypted after the umbrella organisation that runs them suffered a ransomware attack.
Websites for Medina College, Carisbrooke College, the Island Sixth Form, and the Isle of Wight of Education Federation have been offline for almost a week.
What is ransomware? Is this the end of the road for ransomware? What is Maze ransomware?
The Isle of Wight of Education Federation, which runs three schools, said its IT systems were compromised between 28 and 29 July leading to fears it could result in delays to the start of the new school term in September.
"We are working with officers from the police cyber crime unit to pursue the cyber criminals and understand the full impact of the attack," the federation said. "There are obviously some significant implications of this, which we are managing and will take measures to secure our systems even further in the future.
"We are working with the local Police and Authority, Department for Education, Cyber support and various ICT system providers to move this forward and ensure that necessary and appropriate systems are in place for the new academic year."
Ransomware attacks have plagued UK education institutions throughout the 2020/21 academic year, with similar incidents affecting universities in Newcastle, Northampton, and London. However, the attacks on the Isle of Wight occurred out of term time, which suggests the attack is targeted, according to ESET security specialist Jake Moore.
RELATED RESOURCE
How to reduce the risk of phishing and ransomware
Top security concerns and tips for mitigation
"It dramatically highlights the importance of having the correct and robust backup measures in place regardless of how much it costs to make it strong enough to withstand a standard attack," Moore told IT Pro. "Councils, schools, and other local government agencies often lack funding and consequently may not have the strongest network protection which makes them soft targets for those looking to exploit any weaknesses. However, due to very rarely ever paying ransom demands, it is likely that the very fact they often have weaker security means they are unintentionally caught up in a net of ransomware."
In response to the attack, Lanesend Primary school announced that its pupils will start their new academic year three days later than planned.
-
The EU is charting a course to digital independence with the technological sovereignty packageNews New legislation looks to shore up digital sovereignty and reduce reliance on foreign tech
-
Anthropic warns AI is helping lower the bar for up-and-coming hackersNews AI is making it harder to differentiate between high and low-skilled actors
-
Ransomware cartels are fragmenting into volatile splinter groups, warns Met Police cyber chiefNews Commoditized "cyber crime bazaars" and AI data mining are forcing law enforcement to rewrite its playbook
-
New ransomware threat group, The Gentlemen, has become one of the most active ransomware operators, accounting for 10% of all attacksNews NTT researchers warn that the RaaS group is leveraging SystemBC malware to establish covert tunnelling, evade detection, and support rapid lateral movement across enterprise environments
-
Instructure chose to a pay ransom following the Canvas cyber attack – research shows more than half of security leaders would follow suitAnalysis Opting to pay ransoms creates huge risks for enterprises – you’re relying on the word of criminals
-
Ransomware negotiator sentenced for role in major cyber crime groupNews Deniss Zolotarjovs was a key player in a group associated with Conti
-
Threat actors ditch ‘spray and pray’ attacks in shift to targeted exploitationNews A dip in ransomware volumes points to a more targeted approach focused on vulnerability exploitation
-
Security leaders overconfident about ransomware recovery
News Few manage to recover all their data, and many experience business disruption
-
German authorities want your help finding the hackers behind GandCrab and REvilNews Daniil Maksimovich Shchukin and Anatoly Sergeevitsch Kravchuk are believed to have made millions from ransomware as a service schemes
-
The rise of teen hackers ‘makes for a good headline’, but cyber crime activities peak later in life
News With family responsibilities and mortgages to pay, it's not teenagers dishing out malware or carrying out cyber extortion
