Education Sector

ABC News reports: The former co-offensive coordinator for the University of Michigan’s football team has been charged with hacking into thousands of athlete and alumni accounts and downloading private data, including “intimate” photos, over an eight-year span, according to federal investigators. Matthew Weiss, 42, who was also the team’s quarterbacks coach, allegedly gained unauthorized access […]

On December 28, PowerSchool discovered that its Student Information System (SIS) program had been compromised. Since then, more and more schools in the U.S. and Canada have been notifying parents and students that student information stored in the system — including a lot of historical data on former students — was involved in the breach. […]

The education sector continues to be a soft target for threat actors. The Record reports: The Frankfurt University of Applied Sciences announced on Monday it was targeted by “a serious hacker attack” that has led to a total shutdown of its IT systems. It is the latest in a string of disruptive cyber incidents to […]

Human error was responsible for yet another breach of sensitive information. The74 reports: Virginia’s Fairfax County Public Schools disclosed tens of thousands of sensitive, confidential student records, apparently by accident, to a parent advocate who has been an outspoken critic of its data privacy record.   The documents identify current and former special education students by […]

Schools that haven’t already reopened this year will be reopening this week, which makes this a great time for ransomware gangs to strike. All school districts should be hypervigilant and make sure they have a rapid response plan and an emergency backup plan in place. A number of school districts have already been reporting attacks […]