Recently, ransomware gangs seem to be more ruthless than ever, demanding huge amounts of money that victims cannot afford to pay. A typical example is a recently revealed ransomware attack that targeted Broward County Public Schools in Florida. The hackers demanded $40 million.
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According to the Broward County Public Schools (BCPS) website, the school district has nearly 261,000 students and about 110,000 adult learners in 241 schools, centers and technical colleges.
See also: Record breaches and hacks in American schools in 2020
Last month, BCPS was forced to shut down its IT systems due to a cyberattack, but did not provide further details about the hacking incident.
As first reported by databreaches.net, the gang behind the Conti ransomwarehas claimed responsibility for the attack. Negotiations were unsuccessful, and the hackers released screenshots of the ransom negotiations.
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These screenshots revealed that the criminals initially demanded $40,000,000. The BCPS spokesperson was shocked that the hackers believed that such a huge amount of money was possible.
Negotiations continued, and eventually the hackers demanded $10 million, but the school complex was only willing to pay $500,000. This led to the end of negotiations and the release of the screenshots.
In most cases (like this one), ransomware gangs research their victims' financial situationto determine the ransom amount. During negotiations, they tell the victim that they have researched the issue to justify the amount they are asking for.
They also tend to offer a huge amount, knowing that the negotiation process will significantly reduce the final payment.
In the case of Broward County Public Schools, it appears that the hackers did not realize that public school systems in the US typically operate on a limited budget.
Additionally, schools have spent a lot of money during the pandemic to respond to special needs.
When a public school is forced to take money out of its budget for an unexpected expense, students suffer, and ultimately the taxpayer pays the price.
The $40 million ransom is the second largest amount demanded to date. The largest amount was demanded by the REvil from Acer ($50 million).
Source: Bleeping Computer
