Ransomware attacks typically cause significant disruptions for both public and private sector organizations, often halting operations for days. In a recent incident, however, the Charles Darwin School faced such a severe attack that it had to send students home and declare an extended holiday for the rest of the week.
The cyber attack was detected on Thursday, leading to an immediate decision to close the school for the remainder of the week. Parents were notified that their children would not return to classes until the following week.
Authorities are currently investigating the incident, with initial findings suggesting that a notorious Russian cybercriminal group may be behind the attack. However, conclusive evidence linking the group to the attack is still pending.
The ransomware infection has affected numerous staff devices, causing significant disruption. The IT team is working diligently to clean up and restore data, but the process may take considerable time.
As a precautionary measure, the London-based school has disabled Microsoft 365 on all staff and student devices. Both staff and students have been advised to avoid clicking on any emails from unknown sources to prevent further complications.
In related news, security researchers have recently highlighted a critical vulnerability, CVE-2024-40711, in Veeam Backup and Replication software. This vulnerability poses a risk of data theft and operational downtime. Code White Hacker Florian Hauser and experts from WatchTowr Labs have confirmed that the flaw could allow hackers to exploit the system extensively.
Veeam, a leading provider of data backup and recovery solutions, has released a fix for the vulnerability and is actively informing users about the issue and recommended security measures. The company has also issued updates for Veeam Agent for Linux, Veeam Backup for Nutanix AHV, Veeam Backup for Oracle Linux, Veeam Service Provider Console, and Veeam One to address related issues.
