Medusa ransomware group claims a major attack on Laurens County School District

The infamous Medusa ransomware group has claimed that it hacked into the internal network of Laurens County School District 56 and stole 2.4 terabytes of confidential data.

 

Based in Laurens County, South Carolina, Laurens County School District 56, commonly known as District 56, has six schools under its wing. These include Clinton Elementary School, Clinton High School, Clinton Middle School, Eastside Elementary School, Joanna-Woodson Elementary School and M.S. Bailey Child Development Center.

 

In a data security incident notice posted on its website, the school district said in January that it identified a security breach affecting its computer systems. Immediately, an investigation was launched, with assistance from external cyber security experts, to determine the nature and scope of the incident.

 

The District also took steps to secure the affected systems and notified relevant law enforcement authorities about the same. “The impacted systems are still being identified. As a precaution, students are not to use any electronic devices on our campuses,” said District 56 Superintendent David C. O’Shields.

 

While the school district was in the process of restoring its affected systems, students were urged to attend classes and follow instructions accordingly.

 

“Please know that our students are still engaged in instruction and attendance is extremely important. We applaud our teachers for pivoting quickly to a traditional paper, pencil, and textbook format today,” O’Shields added.

 

While the school district did not share details on the nature of the security incident or who was responsible for the same, the Medusa ransomware group has now claimed responsibility for the cyber attack and listed District 56 as a victim on its data leak site.

 

The group claims to be in possession of 2.4 terabytes of confidential data stolen District 56 and has given the latter 12 days to pay a ransom of $320,000 to prevent the data from being published on the dark web. The group also gave the district the option to delay the publishing by paying $10,000 per day. The district did not comment on the claims of Medusa or on its decision of paying a ransom.