Cyberattacks increasingly hobble pandemic-weary US schools

The pandemic also has forced schools to turn increasingly toward virtual learning, making them more dependent on technology and more vulnerable to cyber-extortion. (File/AP)
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Updated 31 January 2022
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Cyberattacks increasingly hobble pandemic-weary US schools

  • Cyberattacks like the one that canceled classes for two days in Albuquerque’s biggest school district have become a growing threat to US schools

ALBUQUERQUE: For teachers at a middle school in New Mexico’s largest city, the first inkling of a widespread tech problem came during an early morning staff call.
On the video, there were shout-outs for a new custodian for his hard work, and the typical announcements from administrators and the union rep. But in the chat, there were hints of a looming crisis. Nobody could open attendance records, and everyone was locked out of class rosters and grades.
Albuquerque administrators later confirmed the outage that blocked access to the district’s student database — which also includes emergency contacts and lists of which adults are authorized to pick up which children — was due to a ransomware attack.
“I didn’t realize how important it was until I couldn’t use it,” said Sarah Hager, a Cleveland Middle School art teacher.
Cyberattacks like the one that canceled classes for two days in Albuquerque’s biggest school district have become a growing threat to US schools, with several high-profile incidents reported since last year. And the coronavirus pandemic has compounded their effects: More money has been demanded, and more schools have had to shut down as they scramble to recover data or even manually wipe all laptops.
“Pretty much any way that you cut it, incidents have both been growing more frequent and more significant,” said Doug Levin, director of the K12 Security Information Exchange, a Virginia-based nonprofit that helps schools defend against cybersecurity risk.
Precize data is hard to come by since most schools are not required to publicly report cyberattacks. But experts say public school systems — which often have limited budgets for cybersecurity expertise — have become an inviting target for ransomware gangs.
The pandemic also has forced schools to turn increasingly toward virtual learning, making them more dependent on technology and more vulnerable to cyber-extortion. School systems that have had instruction disrupted include those in Baltimore County and Miami-Dade County, along with districts in New Jersey, Wisconsin and elsewhere.
Levin’s group has tracked well over 1,200 cybersecurity incidents since 2016 at public school districts across the country. They included 209 ransomware attacks, when hackers lock data up and charge to unlock it; 53 “denial of service” attacks, where attackers sabotage or slow a network by faking server requests; 156 “Zoombombing” incidents, where an unauthorized person intrudes on a video call; and more than 110 phishing attacks, where a deceptive message tricks a user to let a hacker into their network.
Recent attacks also come as schools grapple with multiple other challenges related to the pandemic. Teachers get sick, and there aren’t substitutes to cover them. Where there are strict virus testing protocols, there aren’t always tests or people to give them.
In New York City, an attack this month on third-party software vendor Illuminate Education didn’t result in canceled classes, but teachers across the city couldn’t access grades. Local media reported the outage added to stress for educators already juggling instruction with enforcing COVID-19 protocols and covering for colleagues who were sick or in quarantine.
Albuquerque Superintendent Scott Elder said getting all students and staff online during the pandemic created additional avenues for hackers to access the district’s system. He cited that as a factor in the Jan. 12 ransomware attack that canceled classes for some 75,000 students.
The cancelations — which Elder called “cyber snow days” — gave technicians a five-day window to reset the databases over a holiday weekend.
Elder said there’s no evidence student information was obtained by hackers. He declined to say whether the district paid a ransom but noted there would be a “public process” if it did.
Hager, the art teacher, said the cyberattack increased stress on campus in ways that parents didn’t see.
Fire drills were canceled because fire alarms didn’t work. Intercoms stopped working.
Nurses couldn’t find which kids were where as positive test results came in, Hager said. “So potentially there were students on campus that probably were sick.” It also appears the hack permanently wiped out a few days worth of attendance records and grades.
Edupoint, the vendor for Albuquerque’s student information database, called Synergy, declined to comment.
Many schools choose to keep attacks under wraps or release minimal information to prevent revealing additional weaknesses in their security systems.
“It’s very difficult for the school districts to learn from each other, because they’re really not supposed to talk to each other about it because you might share vulnerabilities,” Elder said.
Last year, the FBI issued a warning about a group called PYSA, or “Protect Your System, Amigo,” saying it was seeing an increase in attacks by the group on schools, colleges and seminaries. Other ransomware gangs include Conti, which last year demanded $40 million from Broward County Public Schools, one of the nation’s largest.
Most are Russian-speaking groups that are based in Eastern Europe and enjoy safe harbor from tolerant governments. Some will post files on the dark web, including highly sensitive information, if they don’t get paid.
While attacks on larger districts garner more headlines, ransomware gangs tended to target smaller school districts in 2021 than in 2020, according to Brett Callow, a threat analyst at the firm Emsisoft. He said that could indicate bigger districts are increasing their spending on cybersecurity while smaller districts, which have less money, remain more vulnerable.
A few days after Christmas, the 1,285-student district of Truth or Consequences, south of Albuquerque, also had its Synergy student information system shut down by a ransomware attack. Officials there compared it to having their house robbed.
“It’s just that feeling of helplessness, of confusion as to why somebody would do something like this because at the end of the day, it’s taking away from our kids. And to me that’s just a disgusting way to try to, to get money,” Superintendent Channell Segura said.
The school didn’t have to cancel classes because the attack happened on break, but the network remains down, including keyless entry locks on school building doors. Teachers are still carrying around the physical keys they had to track down at the start of the year, Segura said.
In October, President Joe Biden signed the K-12 Cybersecurity Act, which calls for the federal cybersecurity agency to make recommendations about how to help school systems better protect themselves.
New Mexico lawmakers have been slow to expand Internet usage in the state, let alone support schools on cybersecurity. Last week, state representatives introduced a bill that would allocate $45 million to the state education department to build a cybersecurity program by 2027.
Ideas on how to prevent future hacks and recover from existing ones usually require more work from teachers.
In the days following the Albuquerque attack, parents argued on Facebook over why schools couldn’t simply switch to pen and paper for things like attendance and grades.
Hager said she even heard the criticism from her mother, a retired school teacher.
“I said, ‘Mom, you can only take attendance on paper if you have printed out your roster to begin with,’” Hager said.
Teachers could also keep duplicate paper copies of all records — but that would double the clerical work that already bogs them down.
In an era where administrators increasingly require teachers to record everything digitally, Hager says, “these systems should work.”


Heavy rains and flash flooding sweep across Northeast

Updated 4 sec ago
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Heavy rains and flash flooding sweep across Northeast

  • Flash flood watches and warnings were in place in parts of New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania and surrounding areas
  • In New York City, some subway service was suspended while other lines were running with severe delays due to flooding
NEW YORK: Heavy rain swept across parts of the US Northeast on Monday night, inundating sections of New York and New Jersey with flash flooding that stranded vehicles in roadways, closed subway lines and led to the declaration of a state of emergency.
Flash flood watches and warnings were in place in parts of New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania and surrounding areas as downpours moved through the region.
New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy declared a state of emergency due to flash flooding and heavy rainfall, advising people to stay indoors and avoid unnecessary travel. A video posted to social media by CBS showed flood waters bring a major roadway in Scotch Plains, New Jersey, to a standstill, stranding buses.
Some buses and trains in New Jersey were delayed due to flooding.
In New York City, some subway service was suspended while other lines were running with severe delays due to flooding, according to the Metropolitan Transportation Authority. New York’s emergency services agency wrote on the social platform X that parts of the city and mid-Hudson were getting hit with flash floods.
Video posted on social media appears to show water flooding down into a Manhattan subway station, submerging the platform, while passengers inside a train watch. Another photo appears to show passengers standing on a train’s seats to avoid the water beginning to soak the floor.
Parts of major thoroughfares in New York, such as the northbound lanes of the Saw Mill River Parkway and the Cross Bronx Expressway, were temporarily closed due to flooding and at least one downed tree.
Officials in New York’s Westchester County were working to rescue people whose vehicles were submerged in water, according to Carolyn Fortino, a spokesperson for the county executive.
“At this time, residents are still strongly advised to avoid all travel unless fleeing an area that is subject to flooding, or under an evacuation order,” she said in an email.
A flood warning was also issued for Staten Island, which had seen about 10.2 to 15.2 centimeters (4 to 6 inches) of rain, according to NYC’s emergency notification system.
Mount Joy, in southeastern Pennsylvania, declared a disaster emergency as more than 17.8 centimeters (7 inches) of rain fell in less than five hours Monday, according to the Fire Department Mount Joy. Some people reported over 1.5 meters (5 feet) of water in their homes and emergency responders made 16 water rescues, although no injuries were reported.
“The declaration enables us to access additional resources to support residents and accelerate recovery efforts,” Borough Emergency Management Coordinator Philip Colvin said in a statement.
By Monday evening, the rainfall had lessened and water in Mount Joy had started to recede.
In Metuchen, New Jersey, about 54.7 kilometers (34 miles) southwest of New York City, Mayor Jonathan M. Busch, wrote on Facebook that the borough was significantly flooded, but by Monday evening water levels had already receded.
“It looks like the worst of the storm is behind us and thankfully, everyone is safe,” he said.

Australia PM Albanese to discuss trade, security in meeting with China’s Xi

Updated 17 min ago
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Australia PM Albanese to discuss trade, security in meeting with China’s Xi

  • Australia has pursued a China policy of ‘cooperate where we can, disagree where we must’ under Albanese
  • Australia’s exports to China, its largest trading partner, span agriculture and energy but are dominated by iron ore

BEIJING: Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is expected to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping and Premier Li Qiang in Beijing on Tuesday, where he said resources trade, energy transition and security tensions would be key topics for discussion.

Albanese is due to meet Xi ahead of an annual leaders’ dialogue with Li, and later attend a meeting of business leaders from both countries at the Great Hall of the People in the Chinese capital.

Albanese said on Monday he looked forward to a “constructive dialogue” with the Chinese leaders.

Australia, which regards the United States its major security ally, has pursued a China policy of “cooperate where we can, disagree where we must” under Albanese.

China, meanwhile, is trying to capitalize on US President Donald Trump’s sweeping trade tariffs by presenting itself as a stable and reliable partner. Chinese officials have expressed interest in expanding a decade-old free trade deal and cooperating in areas like artificial intelligence.

The state-owned China Daily published a glowing opinion piece about Albanese’s visit in Tuesday’s paper and said it showed countries with different political systems could still cooperate.

However, any cooperation is likely to be constrained by long-standing Australian concerns around China’s military build-up and the jailing of Australian writer Yang Hengjun.

Beijing has also separately criticized Canberra’s increased screening of foreign investment in critical minerals and Albanese’s pledge to return a Chinese-leased port to Australian ownership.

Australia’s exports to China, its largest trading partner, span agriculture and energy but are dominated by iron ore, and Albanese has traveled with executives from mining giants Rio Tinto, BHP, and Fortescue, who met Chinese steel industry officials on Monday, at the start of the six-day visit.

Bran Black, CEO of the Business Council of Australia, said Australia’s Bluescope Steel would also be at Tuesday’s business roundtable, along with China’s electric vehicle giant BYD, Chinese banking executives, Baosteel and state-run food group COFCO.

“First and foremost we use fixtures such as this to send a signal that business-to-business engagement should be welcomed and encouraged,” Black told Reuters on Tuesday.


German court to rule on claim against Berlin over US strikes in Yemen

Updated 15 July 2025
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German court to rule on claim against Berlin over US strikes in Yemen

  • “The German government must put an end to the use of this base — otherwise the government is making itself complicit in the deaths of innocent civilians,” said Andreas Schueller, program director for international crimes at the NGO

BERLIN: Germany’s constitutional court will rule Tuesday in a years-long legal saga over whether Berlin can be held partly responsible for US drone attacks on Yemen due to signals sent through the Ramstein air base.
The case is being brought by two Yemeni men, Ahmed and Khalid bin Ali Jaber, who lost members of their family in a US drone strike on the village of Khashamir in 2012.
The survivors say they were there for a wedding of a male family member and eating dinner when they heard the buzz of a drone and then the boom of missile attacks that claimed multiple lives.
A ruling in favor of the plaintiffs could have groundbreaking implications regarding Germany’s responsibility toward third countries in international conflicts.
The two men, supported by the Berlin-based European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights (ECCHR), argue that Germany is partly responsible for the attack because the strike was aided by signals relayed from the Ramstein base in the west of the country.
“Without the data that flows through Ramstein, the US cannot fly its combat drones in Yemen,” according to the ECCHR.
“The German government must put an end to the use of this base — otherwise the government is making itself complicit in the deaths of innocent civilians,” said Andreas Schueller, program director for international crimes at the NGO.
The plaintiffs first took their case to court in 2014, arguing that Germany had a responsibility to ensure the US military was respecting international law in using the Ramstein base.

The case was initially thrown out, before the higher administrative court in Muenster ruled in favor of the plaintiffs in 2019.
However, the government appealed and a higher court overturned the decision in 2020, arguing that German diplomatic efforts were enough to ensure Washington was adhering to international law.
In a hearing scheduled for 0800 GMT, the constitutional court must now decide what conditions are necessary for those affected abroad to sue the German state for the protection of their right to life, according to the ECCHR.
This includes whether data transmission alone is enough of a connection to German territory for Germany to be held responsible.
Ahead of the latest proceedings, which opened in December 2024, the German defense ministry said Berlin was “in an ongoing and trusting dialogue” with the United States about its activities at Ramstein.
The government has repeatedly obtained assurances that drones are not launched, controlled or commanded from Germany and that US forces are acting lawfully, the ministry said.

 


Japan warns of China’s military moves as biggest strategic challenge

Updated 15 July 2025
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Japan warns of China’s military moves as biggest strategic challenge

  • China’s increasing dispatch of aircraft carriers in the Pacific underscores the country’s attempt to advance its sea power in distant waters, the report said

TOKYO: Japan raised strong caution against China’s rapid acceleration of military activity in extensive areas from around its southwestern coasts to the Pacific, describing the moves as the biggest strategic challenge.
China’s growing joint operations with Russia also pose serious security concerns to Japan, along with increasing tension around Taiwan and threats coming from North Korea, the Defense Ministry said in an annual military report submitted to Cabinet on Tuesday.
“The international society is in a new crisis era as it faces the biggest challenges since the end of World War II,” the report said, citing significant changes to the global power balance while raising concern about an escalation of the China-US rivalry.
The security threats are concentrated in the Indo-Pacific, where Japan is located, and could get worse in the future, report says.
Japan has accelerated its military buildup on southwestern islands in recent years, preparing to deploy long-distance cruise missiles, as it worries about a conflict in Taiwan, which China claims as its territory to be annexed by force if necessary. Taiwan launched 10-day annual live-fire military exercises last week intended to guard against Chinese threats to invade. Japan tested a short-range, surface-to-ship missile at home earlier last month.
Chinese warships’ advance into the Pacific has steadily increased, with the frequency of their passage off southwestern Japan tripling in the past three years, including in waters between Taiwan and its neighboring Japanese island of Yonaguni, the 534-page report said.
The report comes days after Japan demanded China stop flying its fighter jets abnormally close to Japanese intelligence-gathering aircraft, which it said was happening repeatedly and could cause a collision. Beijing, in return, accused Japan of flying near Chinese airspace for spying purposes.
Two earlier close encounters in June occurred over the Pacific Ocean, where Japan spotted two Chinese aircraft carriers operating together for the first time.
China’s increasing dispatch of aircraft carriers in the Pacific underscores the country’s attempt to advance its sea power in distant waters, the report said. It said China’s frequent dispatch of bombers for long distance flights in the Pacific by more sophisticated flight routes and fleet organization is seen as Beijing’s attempt to show off its presence around Japan and to further advance its operational capability.
The Defense Ministry noted two cases last year — a Chinese warplane’s brief violation of Japanese airspace over waters off islands near Nagasaki and an aircraft carrier’s entry into a zone just outside of Japan’s territorial waters further southwest in the Nansei island chain.
With US President Donald Trump focusing on the strengthening of the US economy and security, Japan and other US allies face expectations to play a greater role for peace and stability in the region, the report said.
North Korea poses “an increasingly serious and imminent threat” for Japan’s security, the report said, noting the North’s development of missiles carrying nuclear warheads into the Japanese territory and solid-fuel ICBM that can reach the US mainland.
Russia maintains active military operations around Japan and violated the country’s airspace in September, the report added, saying its increasing strategic cooperation with China has posed “strong concern” for Japan’s security.
 

 


Japan’s ruling coalition seen losing upper house majority, Asahi reports

Updated 15 July 2025
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Japan’s ruling coalition seen losing upper house majority, Asahi reports

  • Asahi said its report was based on phone and Internet surveys conducted on voters July 13-14, as well as research nationwide by the newspaper’s journalists

TOKYO: Japan’s ruling coalition will likely lose its majority in the upper house election on July 20, the Asahi newspaper said on Tuesday, heightening the risk of political instability at a time the country struggles to strike a trade deal with the US
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and its coalition partner Komeito will likely struggle to retain the 50 seats needed to defend its majority in the upper house of parliament, the Asahi said.
The LDP will likely win just around 35 seats, the paper said. The LDP currently hold 52 seats.
Asahi said its report was based on phone and Internet surveys conducted on voters July 13-14, as well as research nationwide by the newspaper’s journalists.
Ishiba’s administration has seen approval ratings slide as the rising cost of living, including the soaring price of Japan’s staple rice, hit households.