Los Angeles Unified Faculty District (LAUSD) officers are investigating a menace actor’s claims that they are promoting stolen databases containing information belonging to thousands and thousands of scholars and hundreds of academics.
LAUSD is the second largest public faculty district in the US, with over 25,900 academics, roughly 48,700 different workers, and greater than 563,000 college students enrolled throughout the 2023-2024 faculty 12 months.
The menace actor promoting the allegedly stolen information for $1,000 says the CSV recordsdata put up on the market on a hacking discussion board comprise over 11GB of knowledge, together with over 26 million information with pupil info, greater than 24,000 instructor information, and round 500 containing workers info.
In addition they shared two information samples containing roughly 1,000 pupil information with Social Safety Numbers (SSNs), addresses, father or mother addresses, e mail addresses, contact info, and dates of delivery as proof that the data was reputable.
Researchers who analyzed these samples informed BleepingComputer that the offered information seems reputable however might be previous, because the dataset doesn’t embody current dates. Nonetheless, the menace actor solely shared a small pattern of the allegedly stolen information, so there could also be new info that has but to be shared.
BleepingComputer contacted LAUSD earlier immediately to verify the menace actor’s claims and was informed that the general public faculty district is now investigating them.
“We are looking into this and will get back to you if we have further information to share,” LAUSD Public Info Officer Britt Vaughan informed BleepingComputer.
Vice Society ransomware assault
LAUSD was additionally hit by a ransomware assault in September 2022, over the Labor Day weekend. The Vice Society gang claimed the breach, saying additionally they stole 500GB of recordsdata earlier than encrypting the district’s techniques.
On the day LAUSD disclosed the incident, the FBI, CISA, and MS-ISAC additionally issued a joint advisory warning that Vice Society was disproportionately focusing on schooling organizations.
After the assault, LAUSD requested all workers (together with academics, help workers, and directors) and college students to reset their @LAUSD.web account credentials in particular person at a district website and expedited the rollout of multi-factor authentication.
Virtually one month after the assault, Vice Society revealed the stolen LAUSD information on their darkish internet leak website, together with what a legislation enforcement supply described as “confidential psychological assessments of students, contract and legal documents, business records, and numerous database entries.”
The leak got here after the district introduced that it will not pay the ransom demanded by the ransomware gang as a result of it would not assure the total restoration of knowledge and “public dollars are better spent on our students.”
It’s unclear presently if the info at the moment being offered on the hacking discussion board is linked to the info stolen by Vice Society.
