The Minneapolis Public School (MPS) District recently experienced a serious ransomware attack at the end of February, and the results have been devastating. Not only have the district’s systems been encrypted and inaccessible, but the hackers have also exfiltrated their own copy of the data, which has subsequently been published online. The published data includes highly sensitive information about students and teachers, such as allegations of abuse, psychological reports and details about students with special needs.
NBC News was one of the outlets that examined some of the leaked files, and reported on their findings. The data contained names and birthdates of children with special needs, details of their home lives, results of intelligence tests and information regarding the medications they may be taking. Most concerningly, the reports also included details of potential abuse and neglect, as well as allegations of sexual abuse involving named individuals.
The leak has been promoted through links on a Telegram channel, and posts bragging about the hack have been published on social media, increasing the potential for the damaging information to be seen by an even larger audience. MPS is attempting to have the leaked data removed, but for now it is still publicly available.
The Medusa hacking group is clearly reveling in the chaos they are causing, and the incident serves as a reminder that there are still many criminal groups who have no qualms about the harm their attacks can cause.
Key points:
– The Minneapolis Public School District experienced a serious ransomware attack at the end of February.
– The hackers have exfiltrated their own copy of the data and published it online.
– The published data includes highly sensitive information about students and teachers, such as allegations of abuse, psychological reports and details about students with special needs.
– The leak has been promoted through links on a Telegram channel, and posts bragging about the hack have been published on social media.
– MPS is attempting to have the leaked data removed, but for now it is still publicly available.
– The incident serves as a reminder that there are still many criminal groups who have no qualms about the harm their attacks can cause.