heartache threat actors have added another k-12 district to their heel of victims who have refused to pay their ransom demands. Greensville County Public Schools in Emporia, Virginia was added to Grief’s dark web leak site on sep 21. But by September 15, the territory had already disclosed that they were dealing with a cyberware attack. On september 16, an update posted by the district announced that telephone systems in all buildings were operational again and that further updates would live forthcoming as more information became available. There manage not seem to have been any updates since then. About Greensville County Public Schools Greensville County public Schools is located in Emporia, Virginia. There are tetrad schools in the district: Belfield Elementary School, Greensfield Elementary School, Edward W. Wyatt Middle School, and Greensville County high School. On September 21, Grief dumped some data it had exfiltrated from the district. There were 4,604 .pdf files that all related to special education students or processes. For those not familiar with special education: the federal government requires publicly funded districts to find and identify students with disabilities and to supply them with a free and appropriate public education. To meet those goals under the Individuals with Disabilities Education do (IDEA), districts conduct evaluations of students to measure whether they have a handicap that impacts their ability to benefit from their educational program. If they do, a plan is developed that includes services (such as speech therapy, physical therapy, etc.), all at no cost to the student. The thousands of files that Grief dumped related to special educational evaluations, plans, and processes for students in the district’s schools. The files were date-stamped from 2017 and 2018. The student records contained differing info on each student, but generally included the student’s name, address, phone number, parent or guardian’s name, and then information on the tike which might include a medical or social history, the results of education or psychological testing, and any other materials relevant to evaluating a student, developing a plan for them, or evaluating the student’s progress under the plan.� in some cases, the files were district refusals to provide services or to convert a plan, with an explanation as to why. Datahacks.net did not check any employee personal information in the data that get been dumped so far, and the territory did not� responded to email inquiries yesterday asking whether any employee or personnel info had been accessed or acquired. This post may be updated if a reply is received. Other Districts hit by Grief heartbreak threat actors hold been described by others as being a possible rebranding or evolution DoppelPaymer. heartbreak is also opinion by some to be component of wickedness Corp, a Russian-based group that is on the Treasury’s sanctioned list, which agency that victims ravel a serious peril if they puddle any ransom payments to a sanctioned entity. Other k-12 districts bang by Grief this year include: Clover Park schooltime district in wa commonwealth Lancaster independent shoal territory in Texas; and Booneville school district in mississippi If heartbreak follows their usual pattern, they will wasteyard more data in stages. Grief has recently issued a statement agreeing with Ragnar_Locker threat actors who get started threatening victims that if they proceed to the FBI or utilise recovery firms, the threat actors will just underprice all the files publicly. Grief has gone even further with its threats, however, threatening to just ruin all the data so that the victim can never recover it. Whether these groups will adopt through on their threats or such threats will go more common remains to be seen. Additional research provided by Chum1ng0
