Are schools next in the cyber race? from blog The Technology blog and podcast

Are schools next in the cyber race?

Hi folks,

Happy new year, and thanks for checking out the blog. My goal during Christmas break was to release a podcast, but I’ve been ill. Hopefully, the podcasts will return soon.

The reason why I’m writing today, is to talk about something I’ve thought about for awhile, but sadly, the 4th day of January, we’re already seeing.

I’m going to be careful, and indicate that I got an E-mail from a school I’ve attended talking about how they are investigating reports of a possible attack.

According to the E-mail, it looks like one campus of the network of various schools around the LosAngeles county was targeted.

Computers and voice mail systems, according to the E-mail and attached PDF, are effected, and no voice mail can be left at the school at this time.

School is going on as normal, and recently started its winter session which started on January 3rd.

As a precaution, the E-mail notifies us that computer experts have gotten involved and will be checking out the entire network to determine what is happening.

They are advising that many computers are possibly infected with ransomware. If you are not aware and you’re coming to the blog for the first time, ransomware is a big time problem, and it locks up your files until you pay money.

Many experts are telling people not to pay unless you have no other choice. I agree with the assessments, I know i wouldn’t pay money to someone who may or may not give me my files back.

According to the attached PDF linked, this detection and investigation started on the 31st of December, and only time will tell on what exactly happened.

I had thought about this as part of my predictions for 2017, which I never wrote because I’ve been sick. It saddens me that we’re starting out the new year on such a note like this. It does not surprise me anymore in regards to things like this.

Do I think other schools are going to be impacted? As large of a network as the school has that I got notified from, it would be possible for other large networks to be impacted at some point.

Hospitals, and other businesses have already felt the brunt of ransomware. Trend Micro has already predicted that ransomware will be a bigger threat as it becomes more prevelant as a weapon for people to be making money.

Do you think your school, or a school you’ve attended will be a target? Why or why not? Please sound off in the comments, and lets discuss this big threat of ransomware.

Hope to have a podcast real soon, thanks for reading!

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Informazioni sull'articolo

Are schools next in the cyber race? was released on January 4, 2017 at 8:46 pm by tech in security news and commentary.
Last modified: January 4, 2017.

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