Los Angeles Unified, the second largest school district in the U.S., disclosed that a ransomware attack hit its Information Technology systems over the weekend.
The school district first revealed districtwide technical issues after discovering that the attackers disrupted access to LAUSD systems, including email servers.
“After the District contacted officials over the holiday weekend, the White House brought together the Department of Education, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency to provide rapid, incident response support to Los Angeles Unified, building on the immediate support by local law enforcement agencies,” the district said.
Even though the attack disrupted LAUSD infrastructure, the district says schools will still open today while it works to restore impacted servers, with some expected delays affecting some services.
According to Emsisoft threat analyst Brett Callow, ransomware attacks have disrupted education at approximately 1,000 universities, colleges, and schools during 2021.
This number was lower than in 2020, mainly because last year’s ransomware attacks have hit smaller school districts.
