At a glance.
- Extortionists target schools following last year's PowerSchool hack.
- LockBit ransomware operation hacked.
- South African Airways discloses disruptive cyberattack.
Extortionists target schools following last year's PowerSchool hack.
Education software provider PowerSchool has confirmed that a threat actor is attempting to extort individual schools using data stolen from the company during a December cyberattack. Following the attack, PowerSchool paid a ransom to prevent the threat actor from publishing the stolen data. It's unclear if the latest extortion attempts are being launched by the same threat actor or if another group obtained a copy of the data.
The company told the Register in a statement, "PowerSchool is aware that a threat actor has reached out to multiple school district customers in an attempt to extort them using data from the previously reported December 2024 incident. We do not believe this is a new incident, as samples of data match the data previously stolen in December. We have reported this matter to law enforcement both in the United States and in Canada and are working closely with our customers to support them. We sincerely regret these developments – it pains us that our customers are being threatened and re-victimized by bad actors."
PowerSchool added, "As is always the case with these situations, there was a risk that the bad actors would not delete the data they stole, despite assurances and evidence that were provided to us."