China News Service, Jan. 8 (Xinhua) According to the US Chinese website, a spokesperson for software provider Finalsite confirmed on the 7th that the company was attacked by ransomware that affected the websites of about 5,000 schools, including about 4,500 in the United States. Schools are affected.
Data map: A scene in a school classroom in Maryland, USA.
According to reports, Finalsite is headquartered in Connecticut, USA.
About 8,000 schools around the world, including boarding schools, high schools and universities, use the company's software for their websites and public communications, according to the company.
"Most of our school websites were back online this morning," said company spokesman Morgan Drake. "At this time, we have no evidence that data has been compromised."
The company said it found ransomware on some of its computer systems on Thursday.
"(We) decided to shut down our network after seeing the problem and rebuilt everything in a clean environment," Drake said. "We had all of our customers' data."
About 4,500 U.S. schools were affected, Drake said.
In addition to communications platforms such as Finalsite, ransomware attacks have disrupted remote learning at many schools in the United States during the Covid-19 pandemic.
More than a thousand K-12 schools in the U.S. have been compromised by ransomware each year for the past three years, according to cybersecurity firm Emsisoft.
The Government Accountability Office (GAO) is calling on the U.S. Department of Education to do more to protect schools from hackers.
A November 2021 report from the office noted that the Department of Education "lacks an updated plan based on current assessments of cybersecurity risks facing the education sector."