San Bernardino City Unified School District affected by ransomware.

On October 20, 2019, San Bernardino City Unified School District (SBCUSD) announced on its Twitter account that it was hit by a ransomware. The attack disrupted employees’ access to files, emails, and connectivity to Wi-Fi, so the SBCUSD is resorting to paper to carry out day-to-day activities.

The aftermath.

School officials notified law enforcement regarding the cyberattack as soon as it was identified on October 19. SBCUSD officials announced, "Student and parent data is secure. Nutrition Services and transportation are not impacted. Attendance will be completed manually. School phone lines are working; however, email communications with teachers and staff will not be possible until the situation is resolved.” SBCUSD has not released any information regarding the extent of breach. However, they confirmed that students' personal information has not been breached since that content is hosted on an unaffected third-party platform. The SBCUSD has 72 schools with nearly 53,000 students. 

Recently, Wyoming Area School District had to pay $38,000 to hackers following a ransomware attack that disrupted its services for weeks. 

Cybersecurity threats are everywhere, and it's important for institutions to be prepared. If you want to avoid disasters like these, invest in a tool like ManageEngine's DataSecurity Plus that can secure your data and mitigate ransomware attacks. Download a 30-day, free trial of DataSecurity Plus today.