Ransomware

Montanans lost a record $53 million to cyber crime last year, according to new FBI data. A “drastic increase and change” in cryptocurrency-related investment and fraud is driving it, an FBI official said.

The county’s network and public-facing systems are live after a ransomware attack prompted portions of them to be shuttered. The Minnesota National Guard assisted in this, the second such incident this year.

The Internet Crime Complaint Center identified more than 2,100 ransomware incidents in 2025 directed at U.S. critical infrastructure, including health care, energy and critical manufacturing, among other sectors.

A school district in Minnesota shut down its systems, contacted third-party cybersecurity experts and started working with law enforcement Monday after an unauthorized party accessed the network.

After a ransomware incident in January, officials made changes including updating IT protocols. A second attack this week took affected systems offline, but not 911 and emergency services.

Following the county’s second such attack this year, Minnesota’s National Guard will provide cyber protection support. The more recent incident was continuing to impact emergency and municipal services Tuesday.

A ransomware attack in January in New Britain, Conn., and an attempted “interruption” in Meriden in February highlight the ongoing cybersecurity threat to municipalities and others.

The city currently cannot process some online credit card payments, because of a cyber attack on one of its payment gateway providers. Officials are working to stand up a secure alternative solution.

While overall ransomware attack numbers remained steady, higher education institutions drove a sharp rise in exposed records, fueled in part by third-party software vulnerabilities.

The third-party payment processing vendor, BridgePay Network Solutions, is reporting a systemwide outage to its services following a ransomware attack. An investigation and recovery efforts are ongoing.

A school district in Pennsylvania canceled classes Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday this week while it investigates and isolates a ransomware virus, which did not appear to have come from a local source.

The Georgia Superior Court Clerks’ Cooperative Authority has said it found an intrusion Nov. 21 and “immediately activated” defensive controls. The organization was able to interrupt the incursion underway.

Public- and private-sector security leaders examined trends in cyber threats at the recent California Cybersecurity Education Summit. During an attack, one said, responding quickly is still very important.

The city will make settlements to current and former police officers and workers whose personal information was compromised by a 2023 ransomware attack. The incident, a data breach, impacted basic services for weeks.

An August ransomware attack on the state Department of Transportation exposed personal data and disrupted bus services. Officials are working to bolster the resilience of their systems and have not paid a ransom.

The matter impacted the state Department of Transportation and has, the Maryland Transit Administration said, resulted in “incident-related data loss.” Real-time bus tracking is unavailable on some routes.

The Sophos State of Ransomware in Education 2025 report indicates that while smaller ransoms and faster recovery demonstrate progress, phishing, stolen data, and staff burnout keep schools at risk.

The education sector has seen a swift rise in cybersecurity incidents since 2024, but training, awareness and tools can help ease incidents and response time.