There has been a major data breach of millions of US students. The hacker demands payment in bitcoin (BTC).
The hacker stole students’ sensitive data. He wants to get the ransom
Let’s start from the beginning. On Tuesday, two educational institutions in the US received a warning that confidential information about their students had been taken over by a hacker. A cybercriminal known as Sp1d3r announced that he had obtained the data of over 4 million students in the US. He claims he stole important information about students from Los Alamos Public Schools and Edgenuity, an online learning platform. The information was pulled from the Snowflake Edgenuity and LASchools.net accounts.
The criminal is now demanding a payment of 30 bitcoins, or approximately $2 million, from the schools. There is a threat that otherwise students’ sensitive data will be disclosed. These are records relating to millions of minors, including preschoolers and their parents. This includes names, addresses, financial information and ratings. Additionally, the hacker has the victims’ medical information.
Now schools have until June 25 to make the payment in bitcoin.
Sp1d3r also allegedly has Santander Group Bank user data in his “portfolio” and demands a payment of 30 bitcoins for information about over 30 million customers from Spain, Chile and Uruguay.
Hacker cooperation
The attack on the Snowflake database was attributed to the U.S.-Turkish hacker group UNC5537. It is possible that she also collaborated with another collective – Scattered Spider.
There is a suspicion that this second group of cybercriminals consists of people from the United States and Great Britain. They deal with data theft and extortion. One of its members was recently detained in Spain. A 22-year-old Briton was arrested in Palma de Mallorca. It all happened under the suspicion of being the leader of the Scattered Spider cybergang.
Spanish authorities cooperated with the FBI on this case. The aim was to arrest the man as he prepared to board a plane to Italy. The suspect arrived in Spain at the end of May.
Police said the detained man earned about 400 bitcoins, worth $27 million, by stealing confidential information from companies and selling it on the dark web.
