July 6, 2023
Stolen confidential documents from U.S. schools are being leaked online by ransomware gangs. These files reveal distressing information about student sexual assaults, psychiatric hospitalizations, abusive parents, truancy, and suicide attempts.
One of the most high-profile cases of a ransomware attack on a school district occurred in Minneapolis, where hackers stole more than 300,000 files, including complete sexual assault case folios. The district has not yet notified all of the victims of the breach, and some families only learned about it from a reporter.
In Los Angeles, a ransomware attack exposed the private paperwork of more than 1,900 former students, including psychological evaluations and medical records. The district did not disclose the breach until February, and some victims said they were not notified until months later.
The aftermath of such attacks has far-reaching consequences. Despite promises from school administrators, individual victims are often left uninformed, as no federal law mandates schools to notify them. The Associated Press took the initiative to contact families of six students whose sexual assault case files were exposed, revealing that they were unaware of the breach until the reporter’s call.
The sources for this piece include an article in CTVNews.
