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Extreme Hacking | Sadik Shaikh | Cyber Suraksha Abhiyan

Credits: Washington Post

A group calling itself “Dark Overlord” says it has hacked into US school districts in several states, releasing student data and threatening violence.

In an apparent reference to the hackers, the US Education Department issued a warning of a “new threat” from criminals who vowed to release sensitive records unless extortion demands were met.

The department did not name Dark Overlord in its warning, but the group took credit on Twitter for releasing information on students in a few school districts – which temporarily closed schools – and issuing threats of violence against children if demands were not met. No violence has been reported.

Dark Overlord said on Twitter it hacked the Johnston Community School District in Iowa this month and released personal information on students, making it easy for “any child predator” to “easily acquire new targets”.

A statement on the district’s website said that on the night of October 2, some students and parents in the Johnston School District received anonymous messages threatening the students’ safety, leading to the closure of schools on October 3 and a delayed start on October 4.

The anonymous messages lit up the phones of parents in Johnston, a well-to-do suburb of Des Moines.

“Your child still looks so innocent,” one message read, according to a screenshot shared by a parent with the Des Moines Register and authenticated by a school official. “Don’t let your child go outside.”

Laura Sprague, a spokeswoman for the Johnston Community School District, said the messages got more specific and more frightening. The messages cited children by name and by school, threatening to bring harm to both.

“The texts were very malicious in nature, and for anyone who may read those or who have received those, it’s chilling,” Sprague said.

Out of caution, officials shut down eight schools the following day while law enforcement conducted sweeps with bomb-sniffing dogs. They reopened the schools the following day with additional security, Sprague said.

Sprague said police and the FBI, which are investigating the matter, determined the hackers got student information and parent phone numbers from a server kept by a third-party vendor, but she said she was not at liberty to identify the vendor.

School districts outsource tasks to private companies and sometimes hand over student information as part of the contracts. Sprague said her district contracts for everything from lawn-mowing to messaging services that help schools connect with parents quickly and efficiently through mass text messages. School districts use those services to notify parents about snow days and school events.

Sprague said the malicious activity went beyond tweets: the group that claimed responsibility for the hack then posted phone numbers and names of students online, encouraging predators to target them.

Dark Overlord also took credit for a “vivacious” attack on the Splendora School District in Texas, and authorities in Montana said the group was responsible for the hacking of student information from the Columbia Falls School District.

The group has previously claimed credit for hacking into Netflix – releasing new episodes of Orange Is the New Black – after the company refused to pay a ransom. It has also said it obtained thousands of patient records by hacking into the computers of medical centres and health organisations.

The sheriff’s office in Flathead County, Montana, said authorities had determined that the group operated from overseas.

According to the Flathead Beacon, a seven-page ransom letter was sent to officials in Columbia Falls in September demanding $75,000 in bitcoin in exchange for the group refraining from releasing student data it said it obtained through hacking the district’s computer system.

Several dozen schools closed for three days in the district, though the Flathead sheriff’s office said in a September 18 Facebook post: “We fully understand the concern and fear that has resulted from this cyberattack, and want the community to know that all the valley law enforcement agency heads feel there is no threat to the physical safety of our children.

“As previously stated, the safety of our children has always, throughout this investigation, remained our paramount concern. We will continue to work around the clock to bring those responsible to justice, and remain fully committed to this investigation, even though we now know the physical threat to our children does not exist.”

The recent warning released by the US Education Department said: “Schools have long been targets for cyber thieves and criminals. We are writing to let you know of a new threat, where the criminals are seeking to extort money from school districts and other educational institutions on the threat of releasing sensitive data from student records. In some cases, this has included threats of violence, shaming, or bullying the children unless payment is received.

“These attacks are being actively investigated by the FBI, and it is important to note that none of the threats of violence have thus far been judged to be credible. At least three states have been affected.”

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