Ransomware

Despite what you may have heard, ransomware threats continue to grow and evolve in mid-2023. Here’s what you need to know.

The city and school district of Lowell, Mass. have allocated more than $1 million combined to purchase LifeLock protection for all city and school employees impacted by a ransomware attack earlier this month.

Officials with the city of Dallas have not definitively outlined the full scope of the May 3 cyber attack that disrupted its systems. They have also not released whether the perpetrators demanded any sort of ransom.

John Petrozzelli takes over after Stephanie Helm stepped down from the director position in January. He brings cybersecurity experience from his time in the Air Force, FBI and private sector.

A series of communications between school leaders in the wake of an April cyber attack on a Minnesota school district have been made public, showing deliberations about the attack, response, insurance and other matters.

Dallas police are struggling to access evidence amid an ongoing ransomware attack that is disrupting trials, according to defense lawyers who are exasperated after months of pervasive evidence storage issues.

The data, released by the ransomware group Play, seems to include personal and personnel data such as medical billing records and employee disciplinary cases. The data was posted on the dark web May 11.

Dallas information technology staff are still working with consultants and outside groups to help review and clean servers possibly impacted by the recent ransomware attack against the city’s network.

The ransomware group known as Play claims to have posted 5 gigabytes of stolen data to the dark web following the recent cyber attack against the city of Lowell, Mass. The group has threatened to release more if its demands are not met.

The online group "Play" has claimed responsibility for the cyber attack against the city of Lowell's municipal network. The incident, now in its third week, has been disruptive to city operations.

Dallas’ top information technology official says the city hasn’t found any signs yet that personal information from employees or residents have been leaked after a cyber attack last week.

The challenges of defending water infrastructure are numerous. Many of the systems in California – and nationwide – are still operating with outdated software, poor passwords and other weaknesses that could leave them at risk.

Contrary to initial reports from Tucson Unified School District, Bloomberg News found that cyber criminals posted stolen confidential records online in February, including employee Social Security numbers.

Leaders from Dallas’ fire rescue and police agencies say mistakes are being made and calls for service are being delayed as a result of the ransomware attack that has infiltrated the city’s systems.

Dallas officials are working to restore services after the city was hit with a ransomware attack earlier this week. The attack affected multiple systems, including police, courts and 311 as well as multiple city websites.

County officials have acknowledged that they paid the cyber extortionists who uploaded malware to the Sheriff's Department's computer system. The county paid $511,852 while insurance covered the remainder.

After a ransomware attack left it without Internet service for days, a Pennsylvania school district is still conducting classes with unconnected devices and old-school papers, pencils, lectures and group activities.

Having already confirmed an unauthorized intrusion of its network, a Minnesota school district has further confirmed it was a ransomware attack, which it did not pay, and which compromised some employee data.