InfoSecBulletin Cybersecurity for mankind
Ransomware attacks on schools spiked in June, reaching a new record high. On average, ransomware groups claimed more than one attack per day on educational institutions.
In June, there were 37 attacks on schools, which is more than the 24 attacks that occurred the month before. This information is from Recorded Future, who collected data from various sources such as extortion sites, government agencies, news reports, and hacking forums.
German police read Signal, Telegram, WhatsApp messages without breaking encryption
Urgent Patch! cPanel, GitLab Flaws Expose Users to RCE, File and Credential Theft
Palo Alto PAN-OS Flaw Enables Root Arbitrary Code Execution
Critical Check Point VPN flaws allow remote code execution attacks
Cisco confirms CVE-2026-20079 flaw in Secure FMC is exploited in attacks
Hackers exploit PaperCut flaws using hundreds of AI agents, compromising 440 servers globally
CISA Says Chinese Firms Extracted Billions of Tokens From Frontier AI Models
Nightmare Eclipse Drops New Microsoft Defender ‘ShieldCrash’ zero-day
cPanel Flaw Lets Hosting Accounts With Mail Privileges Execute Code as Root
FortiSandbox, FortiOS, FortiProxy ZTNA flaws unveil, while Fortigate firewall actively exploited
The increase was mainly caused by the Clop ransomware group from Russia. They used vulnerability in the MOVEit file transfer tool to access computer networks globally. The attacks have targeted a wide range of organizations — including Shell, Siemens Energy, and the largest public pension fund in the U.S. — and hit the education sector especially hard.
ALSO READ:
“There was a significant impact on schools due to the Cl0P MOVEit attacks,” stated Allan Liska, a ransomware expert at Recorded Future who tracks attacks. “Cl0p was responsible for 12 attacks against schools in June — almost one-in-three — and propelled school ransomware attacks to their worst month ever.”
In contrast, Clop was only accountable for a single assault on educational institutions from January to May 2023.
While Clop gained significant attention in June due to the MOVEit attacks, it is important to note that there were other active groups as well. In total, there were 408 victims posted to ransomware sites in June, compared to 414 the previous month and just 150 in June 2022.
LockBit is behind most of the recent attacks, which includes targeting a dental insurance provider, a water utility in Portugal, and the Royal Mail in the UK.
Liska said that while Clop is responsible for a lot of activity in June, ransomware attacks in general have been very alarming. “There are more groups going after more targets and it is a never ending barrage of attacks.”
Source: the record
