An arm of the U.S. Department of Education is warning schools and colleges to prepare themselves to address a new threat from cyber criminals hacking into schools’ data systems. On October 16, 2017, the Department’s Federal Student Aid office (FSA) warned that cyber criminals attempted to extort money from school districts in Texas, Montana and Iowa by threatening to publicly release sensitive student information. According to news reports, the hacker or hackers, going by the moniker “The Dark Overlord,” sent messages directly to students or parents threatening to harm or kill children, prompting closures in two of the three school districts that have admitted to being targeted so far.
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March 27, 2024
