Californian school district says December cyber attack compromised students’ data

California-based River Delta Unified School District said it experienced a data security incident in December that compromised the sensitive personal information of students and staff members.

 

In a notice of data breach filed with the Office of Attorney General of California, River Delta said that on December 20, it identified suspicious activity in its internal network. The school district immediately launched an investigation, with assistance from external cyber security experts, to determine the nature and scope of the incident.

 

“Our investigation determined that an unknown actor gained access to certain River Delta systems on December 20, 2023, and copied certain files stored on our systems,” reads the notice.

 

The compromised data included names and other sensitive personal data of the school district’s students and staff. River Delta’s filing with the California state regulator, however, does not state the number of affected individuals.

 

“Upon learning of this event, we moved quickly to investigate and respond, assess the security of our systems, and notify potentially affected individuals. We also notified the Federal Bureau of Investigation of this event,” the school district added.

 

The school district, which has 12 elementary and high schools under its management, said it will also review its existing policies and procedures regarding cybersecurity and evaluate additional measures and safeguards to protect against this type of event in the future.

 

While River Delta found no evidence of the compromised information being misused, it advised all affected individuals to regularly monitor their credit reports, account and benefit statements and report any suspicious activity to law enforcement authorities, including the police and state attorney general.

 

It has also offered complimentary identity protection and credit monitoring services through Equifax Credit Watch Gold to all affected individuals.

 

In February, a group of threat actors calling itself the Meow ransomware group claimed responsibility for the cyber attack on the school district and listed it as a victim on its data leak site. The school district has not commented on whether it was contacted by the criminal group or asked to pay a ransom.