NBC News, an American broadcaster has published a report on the data theft of millions of school children and how it can set up a child for a lifetime of potential identity theft. The data includes medical condition, family financial status, Social Security numbers, and birth dates of school children.According to the NBC report, threat actors posted the excel sheet titled “Basic student information”, maintained by one of the schools on the dark web after they refused to pay the ransom, as instructed by the FBI. “It lists students by name and includes entries for their date of birth, race, Social Security number, and gender, as well as whether they’re an immigrant, homeless, marked as economically disadvantaged, and if they’ve been flagged as potentially dyslexic,” states the NBC report. When NBC News contacted some of the targeted schools regarding the data leak, they were unaware of the problem. “I think it’s pretty clear right now they’re not paying enough attention to how to ensure that data is secure, and I think everyone is at wits’ end about what to do when it’s exposed. And I don’t think people have a good handle on how large that exposure is,” said Doug Levin, the director of the K12 Security Information Exchange, a nonprofit organization devoted to helping schools protect against cyberthreats. Worsening Situation The recent surge in ransomware attacks has aggravated the problem, as those hackers often release victims’ files on their websites if they refuse to pay the ransom. While the average person may not know where to find such sites, criminal hackers can find them easily. In 2021 only, hackers released data from more th ..
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