A group of hackers called NetWalker attacked the networks of three American universities in order to infect the infrastructure with a cryptographic virus and extort ransom in bitcoins.

Attackers infiltrated the computer networks of the University of California at San Francisco, the University of Michigan in East Lansing, and Columbia College in Chicago. Hackers said they were able to obtain important data, such as student names, their Social Security numbers, and financial information. If universities do not pay the ransom, then hackers will publish the stolen data.

According to Emsisoft analyst Brett Callow, ransomware attacks on educational institutions are a "prohibitively destructive and costly problem." According to Emsisoft, in 2019 at least 89 universities, colleges and schools were attacked by such viruses. The trend continues in 2020 - at least 30 educational institutions have been attacked at the moment.

Kallow emphasized that computer professionals working in educational institutions need to maintain network security, timely update systems and filter email. He advised turning off the PowerShell scripting language system and using sandboxes to run files. A computer security specialist said:

“Every time an attacker gets paid, they become even more motivated and gain new resources. The only way to fight is to cut them off from financing, which means organizations must ensure the security of their computer systems so that they do not have to pay a ransom. ”

Verizon recently reported that about 80% of cyber attacks on educational services in 2020 were carried out using ransomware viruses.