Hackers tried to sell Pembina Trails School Division student, staff info on dark web
CBC
Photos of valid passports, staff payroll information and credit card statements were among the nearly 1 million files uploaded onto the dark web after a recent ransomware attack by a hacker group on a south Winnipeg school division.
The Pembina Trails School Division was hit in December by a data breach carried out by a hacker group known as Rhysida, which stole personal information of students, teachers and families.
The division confirmed Friday the hacker group demanded a ransom to get the data back, but said it wasn't paid. The group then advertised the sale of personal information and photos of students, teachers and staff going back to 2011 on the dark web — a part of the internet that can't be accessed with a traditional web browser.
When no one bought the data, the group uploaded it online.
The data that was possibly exposed includes names, dates of birth, confidential business data, personal health information and email addresses.
Colleen Peluso, who has three children in the Pembina Trails School Division, says some of their personal data was among the information stolen, alongside that of thousands of other students and staff.
"Every year, the parent council at our school does cybersecurity and internet safety talks, which I go to. I've tried really hard to protect my family," Peluso said.
VenariX, a Texas-based company that investigates and records cybersecurity incidents, said it decided to investigate the breach to learn more.
The company has no connection with the Pembina Trails School Division, but found the division's data on the dark web and put together a report on its website that included pixelated images of the stolen information to help people learn about the hack.
The hacker group listed the 5.4 terabytes of data stolen from Pembina Trails online and was selling it for 15 bitcoins — the equivalent of roughly $1.6 million.
WATCH | Hackers tried to sell data stolen from division:
"Some of them will try to sell that data to somebody else that is interested … just to make a profit. If they do sell it, some will just remove it off their website like it wasn't even there," said Luciana Obregon, founder of VenariX.
"But if they weren't able to sell it, they basically make it available for anybody to go in and do whatever they want with it."
Screengrabs viewed by CBC show documents with names, birth dates, health information, email addresses and bank account numbers.
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