A fleet of Broward County school buses in a parking lot in July 2020 in Pembroke Pines, Florida. Photo: Johnny Louis/Getty Images
Broward County Public Schools, the sixth largest school district in the United States, said Thursday it had been the target of a massive ransomware attack, according to AP.
Why it matters: In March, hackers encrypted some of the Fort Lauderdale-based district's data and demanded a $40 million cryptocurrency payment or they would erase the files and publish the personal information of students and employees online.
What they're saying: Broward said Thursday it made no extortion payment and that no personal information had been published online, according to AP.
- The district added that it is working with cybersecurity experts to shore up its computer systems and restore affected systems.
The big pictures: Screenshots of negotiations between Broward County Public Schools and the hackers show that at one point the school district offered $500,000 to restore the data, according to WPTV, an NBC-affiliated television station.
- The attack briefly shutdown the district’s computer system in early March, but classes were not disrupted.