New York School District Pays Hackers $100,000

Rockville Centre School District Forks Out Thousands

After falling victim to ransomware, the Rockville Centre School District decided to follow the path of least resistance — pay the ransom demands. The school had a cyber insurance policy, which helped to cover the cost of the $100,000 payment, as well as assist with the payment and negotiation process.

Ransomware victims are often discouraged from paying the demands because there is no guarantee the hackers will send the decryption keys after getting paid. However, this time, they did.

Unfortunately, just because you receive the decryption keys doesn’t mean the remediation process is quick. The attack took place in July, and Rockville Centre School District is still working to restore their networks. Meanwhile, a neighboring school in Mineola, NY was hit with the same ransomware, and was able to restore using backup files and is operating at normal capacity. The lesson — back up your files.

Other Ransomware Attacks

For a list of ransomware attacks that have already taken place in 2019, you may click here. We have also created a map, see below, of the ransomware attacks that have taken place in the U.S.