Negligence and unawareness are still ever-present

21.11.2018

Computer systems of Johannesburg-Lewiston Area Schools were affected by a ransomware. The insurance provider covered the financial damage although the school wasn’t prepared to deal with the issue and the Superintendent appeared to be unaware of basic cyber incidents that might happen to any organisation.

About a month ago a school technology consultant informed the administrator of a problem impeding file opening. The investigation determined that the attack was coming from Germany.
The school doesn’t store employees’ and students’ data on the servers so personal details weren’t compromised. The school network isn’t fully backed up and corporate devices were impacted significantly making staff members bring their own computers and gadgets.

Some measures were taken after the violation occurred. The school is going to upgrade antiviruses, create a cloud-based storage securing its protection and focusing their concern on being resistant to ransomware attacks. Anyway, using a Google doc system might keep offenders from harming the server but online storages pose some risks which demand as much attention.

There are school districts within the Cheboygan-Otsego-Presque Isle Educational Service District which are now developing a tech team system including some additional firewall functionality.

Boxes with personal records have been exposed for weeks in government office in Canada. The documents included social insurance numbers, notes from doctors and a resignation letter.
50 boxes of confidential details were held unattended in a central area of the Grand Falls-Windsor Department of Transportation and Works depot. Some of the documents were unpacked and could be easily inspected by anyone who would walk by the boxes as soon as the area has no staff entry policy limitations.

People whose data was exposed weren’t informed about the incident. An employee alerted managers to the unguarded documents but the boxes weren’t moved. It took the superiors more than a week to get to arrangement of this privacy issue.

The department is to respond in 10 days after the discontent was officially reported. Donovan Molloy, the province's privacy commissioner, expects the department to begin taking privacy seriously and claims the breach is one of the most infamous exposures he has ever seen.