Texas school district pays half million dollar ransom after ransomware attack

Texas’ Judson Independent School District has paid more than $547,000 in ransom to ransomware criminals who stole school district data and threatened to publish it online. The management wanted to prevent the data from being distributed online.

“To prevent sensitive and personal information from appearing on the dark web, we have paid a ransom of USD 547,045.61. We are doing this to prevent others from misusing this information,” it said in a statement. “We had no other choice and would rather have used the money to meet the needs of our employees and students.”

The school district was hit by a ransomware attack on June 17. The personal information of more than 26,000 students and teachers was stolen. Phone lines and e-mail services were also shut down by the attackers.