Leominster school bitcoin

The Leominster Public Schools were broadsided when they learned of the extortion payment to regain possession of their pilfered data and email.
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Leominster pays $10K in bitcoin to free up data from a ransomware attack

Such attacks can come through infected files or attachments, or through incursions into a computer system. In Leominster, interim police chief Michael Goldman said the hackers likely found their way into the school department's computers through an open port, the digital equivalent of an unlocked door.

He said the case should serve as a reminder to communities and other organizations to assess their vulnerabilities. Interim Leominster superintendent Paula L. Deacon said the attack happened April She contacted Goldman, who said he determined that there was not much he could do. He counseled Deacon to pay up. Officials did not say when they made the payments, which was made to a bitcoin digital currency account, making it nearly impossible to trace the hackers. On Monday, IT crews in Leominster were working to get the system back online.

Deacon did not respond to requests for further comment.

Leominster school officials reported the incident to the FBI, which declined to comment. But the agency said in a statement that its Boston office gets about one report about ransomware each week, and many more are not reported. The number of ransomware reports is increasing, and we're seeing different kinds of ransomware, different deployment methods, and coordinated distribution," the FBI said.


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And despite the nefarious nature of the school system's lockdown, there is no criminal investigation into the matter because solving this crime is "impossible," said Interim Leominster Police Chief Michael Goldman. The police chief said he wasn't told what types of school district files were locked down.

Massachusetts school district pays $10,000 in bitcoin ransom to computer hackers

He said this was "straight up decryption" and that no data was mined. The school e-mail system was down, and school employees were using their Gmail accounts as backup to communicate with each another, he said. Leominster Schools Superintendent Paula Deacon said in a statement that the bitcoin ransom was paid following the cyberattack, which occurred April The school district was waiting for its system "to be fully restored," she said.