{"id":42440,"date":"2022-01-31T19:50:15","date_gmt":"2022-02-01T02:50:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/hackers-prey-on-public-schools-adding-stress-amid-pandemic\/"},"modified":"2022-02-01T02:50:15","modified_gmt":"2022-02-01T02:50:15","slug":"hackers-prey-on-public-schools-adding-stress-amid-pandemic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/hackers-prey-on-public-schools-adding-stress-amid-pandemic\/","title":{"rendered":"Hackers prey on public schools, adding stress amid pandemic"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Art
Art teacher Sarah Hager works at a computer in her classroom at Cleveland Middle School on Jan. 23 in Albuquerque. Public school systems \u2013 which often have limited budgets and cybersecurity expertise \u2013 have become an inviting target for ransomware gangs. The coronavirus pandemic has forced schools to turn increasingly toward virtual learning, making them more dependent on technology and more vulnerable to cyber-extortion. (Cedar Attanasio\/Associated Press)<\/span>Cedar Attanasio<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

ALBUQUERQUE \u2013 For teachers at a middle school in New Mexico\u2019s largest city, the first inkling of a widespread tech problem came during an early morning staff call.<\/p>\n

On the video, there were shout-outs for a new custodian for his hard work, and the typical announcements from administrators and the union rep. But in the chat, there were hints of a looming crisis. Nobody could open attendance records, and everyone was locked out of class rosters and grades.<\/p>\n

Albuquerque administrators later confirmed the outage that blocked access to the district\u2019s student database \u2013 which also includes emergency contacts and lists of which adults are authorized to pick up which children \u2013 was because of a ransomware attack.<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t realize how important it was until I couldn\u2019t use it,\u201d said Sarah Hager, a Cleveland Middle School art teacher.<\/p>\n

Cyberattacks like the one that canceled classes for two days in Albuquerque\u2019s biggest school district have become a growing threat to U.S. schools, with several high-profile incidents reported since last year. And the coronavirus pandemic has compounded their effects: More money has been demanded, and more schools have had to shut down as they scramble to recover data or even manually wipe all laptops.<\/p>\n

\u201cPretty much any way that you cut it, incidents have both been growing more frequent and more significant,\u201d said Doug Levin, director of the K12 Security Information Exchange, a Virginia-based nonprofit that helps schools defend against cybersecurity risk.<\/p>\n

Precise data is hard to come by since most schools are not required to publicly report cyberattacks. But experts say public school systems \u2013 which often have limited budgets for cybersecurity expertise \u2013 have become an inviting target for ransomware gangs.<\/p>\n

The pandemic also has forced schools to turn increasingly toward virtual learning, making them more dependent on technology and more vulnerable to cyber-extortion. School systems that have had instruction disrupted include those in Baltimore County<\/a> and Miami-Dade County, <\/a>along with districts in New Jersey, Wisconsin and elsewhere.<\/p>\n

Levin\u2019s group has tracked well over 1,200 cybersecurity incidents since 2016 at public school districts across the country. They included 209 ransomware attacks, when hackers lock data up and charge to unlock it; 53 \u201cdenial of service\u201d attacks, where attackers sabotage or slow a network by faking server requests; 156 \u201cZoombombing\u201d incidents, where an unauthorized person intrudes on a video call; and more than 110 phishing attacks, where a deceptive message tricks a user to let a hacker into their network.<\/p>\n

Recent attacks also come as schools grapple with multiple other challenges related to the pandemic. Teachers get sick, and there aren’t substitutes to cover them. Where there are strict virus testing protocols, there aren\u2019t always tests or people to give them.<\/p>\n

In New York City, an attack this month on third-party software vendor Illuminate Education didn\u2019t result in canceled classes, but teachers across the city couldn\u2019t access grades. Local media reported<\/a> the outage added to stress for educators already juggling instruction with enforcing COVID-19 protocols and covering for colleagues who were sick or in quarantine.<\/p>\n

Albuquerque Superintendent Scott Elder said getting all students and staff members online during the pandemic created additional avenues for hackers to access the district\u2019s system. He cited that as a factor in the Jan. 12 ransomware attack that canceled classes for about 75,000 students.<\/p>\n

\"Albuquerque
Albuquerque Public Schools superintendent Scott Elder poses for a photo outside of Highland High School on Aug. 11, 2021, in Albuquerque. (Cedar Attanasio\/Associated Press)<\/span>Cedar Attanasio<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The cancellations \u2013 which Elder called \u201ccyber snow days\u201d \u2013 gave technicians a five-day window to reset the databases over a holiday weekend.<\/p>\n

Elder said there\u2019s no evidence student information was obtained by hackers. He declined to say whether the district paid a ransom but noted there would be a \u201cpublic process\u201d if it did.<\/p>\n

Hager, the art teacher, said the cyberattack increased stress on campus in ways that parents didn\u2019t see.<\/p>\n

Fire drills were canceled because fire alarms didn\u2019t work. Intercoms stopped working.<\/p>\n

Nurses couldn\u2019t find which kids were where as positive test results came in, Hager said. \u201cSo potentially there were students on campus that probably were sick.\u201d It also appears the hack permanently wiped out a few days worth of attendance records and grades.<\/p>\n

Edupoint, the vendor for Albuquerque\u2019s student information database, called Synergy, declined to comment.<\/p>\n

Many schools choose to keep attacks under wraps or release minimal information to prevent revealing additional weaknesses in their security systems.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s very difficult for the school districts to learn from each other, because they\u2019re really not supposed to talk to each other about it because you might share vulnerabilities,\u201d Elder said.<\/p>\n

Last year, the FBI issued a warning about a group called PYSA, or \u201cProtect Your System, Amigo,\u201d saying it was seeing an increase in attacks by the group on schools, colleges and seminaries. Other ransomware gangs include Conti, which last year demanded $40 million from Broward County Public Schools, one of the nation\u2019s largest.<\/p>\n

Most are Russian-speaking groups that are based in Eastern Europe and enjoy safe harbor from tolerant governments. Some will post files on the dark web, including highly sensitive information, if they don\u2019t get paid.<\/p>\n

While attacks on larger districts garner more headlines, ransomware gangs tended to target smaller school districts in 2021 than in 2020, according to Brett Callow, a threat analyst at the firm Emsisoft. He said that could indicate bigger districts are increasing their spending on cybersecurity while smaller districts, which have less money, remain more vulnerable.<\/p>\n

A few days after Christmas, the 1,285-student district of Truth or Consequences, south of Albuquerque, also had its Synergy student information system shut down by a ransomware attack. Officials there compared it to having their house robbed.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just that feeling of helplessness, of confusion as to why somebody would do something like this because at the end of the day, it\u2019s taking away from our kids. And to me that\u2019s just a disgusting way to try to, to get money,\u201d Superintendent Channell Segura said.<\/p>\n

The school didn\u2019t have to cancel classes because the attack happened on break, but the network remains down, including keyless entry locks on school building doors. Teachers are still carrying around the physical keys they had to track down at the start of the year, Segura said.<\/p>\n

In October, President Joe Biden signed the K-12 Cybersecurity Act, which calls for the federal cybersecurity agency to make recommendations about how to help school systems better protect themselves.<\/p>\n

New Mexico lawmakers have been slow to expand internet usage in the state, let alone support schools on cybersecurity. Last week, state representatives introduced a bill that would allocate $45 million to the state education department to build a cybersecurity program by 2027.<\/p>\n

Ideas about how to prevent future hacks and recover from existing ones usually require more work from teachers.<\/p>\n

In the days after the Albuquerque attack, parents argued on Facebook about why schools couldn\u2019t simply switch to pen and paper for things like attendance and grades.<\/p>\n

\"Art
Art teacher Sarah Hager poses outside her classroom at Cleveland Middle School on Sunday, Jan. 23, 2022, in Albuquerque, N.M. Public school systems \u2013 which often have limited budgets and cybersecurity expertise — have become an inviting target for ransomware gangs. The coronavirus pandemic has forced schools to turn increasingly toward virtual learning, making them more dependent on technology and more vulnerable to cyber-extortion. (Cedar Attanasio\/Associated Press)<\/span>Cedar Attanasio<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Hager said she even heard the criticism from her mother, a retired school teacher.<\/p>\n

\u201cI said, \u2018Mom, you can only take attendance on paper if you have printed out your roster to begin with,\u2019\u201d Hager said.<\/p>\n

Teachers could also keep duplicate paper copies of all records \u2013 but that would double the clerical work that already bogs them down.<\/p>\n

In an era where administrators increasingly require teachers to record everything digitally, Hager says, \u201cthese systems should work.\u201d<\/p>\n

Associated Press writers Michael Melia in Hartford, Connecticut, and Alan Suderman in Richmond, Virginia, contributed to this report.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

teacher Sarah Hager works at a computer in her classroom at Cleveland Middle School on Jan. 23 in Albuquerque. Public school systems \u2013 which often have limited budgets and cybersecurity expertise \u2013 have become an inviting target for ransomware gangs. The coronavirus pandemic has forced schools to turn increasingly toward virtual learning, making them […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":42441,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[815,138],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-42440","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-associated-press-new-mexico","tag-new-mexico"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42440","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42440"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42440\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/42441"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42440"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42440"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42440"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=42440"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}