Ransomware gang Rhysida over the weekend claimed responsibility for a December 2024 data breach at Forrest City School District in Arkansas. The district has not yet verified Rhysida’s claim, but the gang is demanding that Forrest City pay 5 bitcoin in ransom, which is worth about $420,000 at this time.
In a blog post reporting this news, Paul Bischoff, Consumer Privacy Advocate at Comparitech, wrote:
“Rhysida is a ransomware group that first surfaced in May 2023. Its ransomware can steal data and lock down targeted systems. It then demands a ransom both for deleting stolen data and for a key to restore infected systems.”
“Since it began, Rhysida claimed responsibility for 84 confirmed ransomware attacks affecting more than 5.3 million records. The group claimed another 101 unconfirmed attacks that haven’t been acknowledged by targeted organizations. Its average ransom demand is $1.05 million.”
“In 2024, Comparitech researchers logged 73 confirmed ransomware attacks on US schools, colleges, and other educational institutions. That figure is a sharp decrease from the year prior, which saw 124 such attacks. In 2025 so far, we’ve recorded 10 more. The average ransom across all attacks in $690,000.”
“Ransomware attacks on schools and other education facilities can disrupt day-to-day operations such as taking attendance, submitting grades, phone and email communications, billing, payroll, and assignments. Ransomware attacks are often two-pronged: they lock down systems and steal data. Schools that refuse to pay can face extended downtime, lose data, and put students and faculty at increased risk of fraud.”
Education and healthcare are two sectors that seem particularly vulnerable to ransomware gangs. More resources need to be put into those sectors to stop them from being low hanging fruit for threat actors. Otherwise stories like these will just keep getting posted.
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Rhysida demands $420,000 from Arkansas school district after data breach
Ransomware gang Rhysida over the weekend claimed responsibility for a December 2024 data breach at Forrest City School District in Arkansas. The district has not yet verified Rhysida’s claim, but the gang is demanding that Forrest City pay 5 bitcoin in ransom, which is worth about $420,000 at this time.
In a blog post reporting this news, Paul Bischoff, Consumer Privacy Advocate at Comparitech, wrote:
“Rhysida is a ransomware group that first surfaced in May 2023. Its ransomware can steal data and lock down targeted systems. It then demands a ransom both for deleting stolen data and for a key to restore infected systems.”
“Since it began, Rhysida claimed responsibility for 84 confirmed ransomware attacks affecting more than 5.3 million records. The group claimed another 101 unconfirmed attacks that haven’t been acknowledged by targeted organizations. Its average ransom demand is $1.05 million.”
“In 2024, Comparitech researchers logged 73 confirmed ransomware attacks on US schools, colleges, and other educational institutions. That figure is a sharp decrease from the year prior, which saw 124 such attacks. In 2025 so far, we’ve recorded 10 more. The average ransom across all attacks in $690,000.”
“Ransomware attacks on schools and other education facilities can disrupt day-to-day operations such as taking attendance, submitting grades, phone and email communications, billing, payroll, and assignments. Ransomware attacks are often two-pronged: they lock down systems and steal data. Schools that refuse to pay can face extended downtime, lose data, and put students and faculty at increased risk of fraud.”
Education and healthcare are two sectors that seem particularly vulnerable to ransomware gangs. More resources need to be put into those sectors to stop them from being low hanging fruit for threat actors. Otherwise stories like these will just keep getting posted.
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This entry was posted on March 31, 2025 at 1:11 pm and is filed under Commentary with tags Hacked. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.