Unified handles purchases and the bidding process for vendors and construction projects.Īlthough a recent audit pointed out gaping flaws in the district’s online security, L.A. Operations unfolded more smoothly the second week after the attack, although technicians still are trying to restore the online system through which L.A. Campuses reopened as scheduled on the Tuesday after Labor Day, but many students, parents and staff said a full instructional week was lost as technicians double-checked and gradually rebooted systems and as users reset more than 600,000 passwords.Īlong the way, the district discovered malware the attackers left behind, which had the potential to cause more damage if not discovered and carefully disabled.Ĭarvalho described the malware as “digital tripwires left behind that if tripped will further disable or infect systems.” This discovery caused a delay in the reset of district passwords, partly over concerns that the new passwords could then be stolen as well. The information for a Board of Education meeting Tuesday, for example, was posted via a temporary, cumbersome webpage. The other involved attempting to disable district computer systems, making them inaccessible.Īlthough both elements of the attack were only partly successful, full recovery has been difficult. The attempted theft of data was one element of the attack on L.A. He added: “There is no reason to believe that the criminals would actually delete the exfiltrated data even if the ransom is paid.” “The best action is not to pay the ransom and recover systems from backups.” “It is important for any organization impacted by ransomware to understand that even if they pay a ransom demand, they will still incur significant IT expense and delays to repair the system,” Neuman said. In general, such payments are a bad idea, said Clifford Neuman, director of USC’s Center for Computer Systems Security. Hackers will typically threaten to post sensitive data online if they are not paid, but it can be difficult to determine what they’ve obtained, and they might be lying. The demand for money was widely anticipated in the wake of the cyberattack, which was discovered in progress on the night of Sept.
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