The information was released Saturday, two days before the deadline previously set by the hackers, in a clear response to LAUSD director Alberto Carvalho’s refusal to pay a ransom to an international hacking syndicate. it had seen screenshots of the hack that appeared to show social security numbers, but said the full disclosure was not clear.
The group that claimed responsibility for the cyberattack had given school districts a Monday deadline to pay the organization a ransom.
In a dark web post spotted and reprinted by cybersecurity firm Emsisoft’s Brett Callow, Hacking’s Syndicate’s Vice Society listed his LAUSD as one of his “our partners,” saying: said to 12:00 p.m.…”
This contribution did not indicate what information would be collected or published. Carvalho previously confirmed that the school district received a ransom note from the group responsible for the Labor Day weekend hack, but declined to name it.
He did not provide any specific information regarding his request.
“We acknowledge that this actor (hacker) contacted us, but we responded without engaging in any negotiations,” he told reporters. “With this in mind, we can at this time acknowledge that a financial claim was made by this entity. We did not comply with this request.”
Carvalho told his Times on Friday that the school district will neither pay the ransom nor negotiate with the hackers. “All I can say is that the request, any request, is ridiculous,” he told The Times. We will not enter into negotiations with any company.”
The school district released a statement Friday afternoon acknowledging the threatened information repository, saying it was “working diligently with investigators and law enforcement to identify what information was compromised and who owns it. There are,’ he said.
Carvalho retweeted the statement on Sunday, adding a short message: After discovering the hack, LAUSD officials took the unusual step of shutting down most computer systems while they work to assess the full extent of the cyber breach. After that, the system slowly came back online.
Carvalho had previously said that hackers appeared to have placed numerous digital “tripwires” that could have caused more systems to malfunction, so the school district was wary of bringing computers back online. No classes or other district operations were affected by the cyberattack, officials said. However, students and staff were forced to reset their district passwords. This is monumental work for her second-largest school district in the country.