In what appears as a serious threat to students from 14 schools based in UK, a hacking group named Vice Society posted about 550 GB of data online belonging to school pupil that includes sensitive info like pupil passport scams, pay scales of staff, their contract details and Children’s Special Educational Needs(SEN) info.
It’s believed that the hackers got hold of the data from a ransomware attack that was launched on educational institutions in UK and US last year and as the victims failed to pay the demanded ransom, the information was leaked online to fetch monetary gains.
According to a source from BBC, the mass data leak is related to the schools & educational institutes listed below-
- Carmel College, St. Helens,
- Francis King School of English, London
- Gateway College, Hamilton, Leicester
- Durham Johnston Comprehensive School
- Holy Family RC+CE College, Heywood
- Lampton School, Hounslow, London
- Mossbourne Federation, London
- Pilton Community College of Barnstaple
- School of Oriental and African Studies, London
- Samuel Ryder Academy, St Albans
- St Pauls Catholic College, Sunbury-on-Thames
- Test Valley School, Stockbridge
- The De Montfort School, Evesham
All the affected institutions have already informed their staff, students and their parents about the incident and have informed the law enforcement to investigate the attack deeply.
NOTE 1- FBI issued a warning in September 2022 that Vice Society was launching attack campaigns on educational institutions and is after stealing their sensitive information.
NOTE 2- Vice Society is a ransomware spreading group that is after healthcare units and educational organizations. Apparently, they are reported to be funded by Russian intelligence and primarily targeted those operating in the United Kingdom and the United States. Los Angeles Unified School District(LAUSD) was one of their prime targets last year and CISA confirmed that the said group of cyber criminals developed tools such as Zeppelin Ransomware and Hello Kitty or Five Hands.
