These are certainly interesting times we are living in. In
particular, schools are either having virtual classes, in-person classes, or a
mixture of these. This has seriously taxed the systems that were already under financial pressure. One area historically under-funded has been
cybersecurity, s the focus of the K-12 and university systems has been to teach
the students. Bearing this in mind, the systems may not have the budget to
fully defend against cybersecurity attacks. A recent target was the Miami-Dade
Public Schools System, which has approximately 275k students. This school
system is the fourth largest in the country.
Attack
The Miami-Dade County Public school’s students began
attending classes again this school year. To facilitate the return, the public
school district was using an online learning system (MySchool online), which
makes sense of all things considered. For some reason, a 16-year-old high school
student, who happens to attend the targeted school system (a junior at the
South Miami Senior High School), believed DDoSing the school’s e-learning
system, crippling its functions, was a good idea. The high school student did
this several times, shutting down access for several days. These attacks were
clearly malicious and disrupted the teaching and student learning across the
state.
Post-Attack
The student, while using a lower-level form of attack forgot
one important thing-to cover his tracks. The investigators were able to locate
him from the IP address the attacks originated from. A portion of the attacks
did originate from outside of the US. This is such a basic step, it was even
addressed in the iconic movie Hackers from the 1990s.
The FBI, Secret Service, and the Florida Department of Law
Enforcement was involved with the investigation. The student, when questioned,
admitted to eight DDoS attacks beginning on that Monday. The student didn’t code
an app for this but instead used an online resource. There may be others
involved with this set of attacks. This is not new, as the public school district
has experienced more than a dozen of these since the 2020-2021 school year has
started.
The student was arrested, as noted, and charged with
Computer Use in an Attempt to Defraud. This is a third-degree felony. The student
also was charged with Interference with an Educational Institution. This charge
is a second-degree misdemeanor.
In Closing
Defending against certain attacks is not an overly complex
set of operations. You may need to only contract with a third party to use
their apps or services to protect your system. When you don’t plan for the
inevitable, this seems to find you rather quickly.
Resources
850 WFTL. (2020, September). 16-year-old arrested for
hacking miami dade school system. Retrieved from https://www.850wft.com/16-year-old-arrested-for-hacking-miami-dade-school-system/
Allen, K. (2020, September 3). 16-year-old arrested for
hacking miami dade school system. Retrieved from https://abcnews.go.com/US/16-year-arrested-hacking-miami-dade-school-sytem/
Ampgoo.com. (2020, September 3). 16-year-old student arrested
for allegedly crippling miami school system with cyberattack. Retrieved from https://www.ampgoo.com/16-year-old-student-arrested-for-allegedly-crippling-miami-school-system-with-cyberattack
L33T Dawg. (2020, September 3). 16-year-old arrested for
cyberattacks on school’s online learning system.
Miller, M. (2020, September 3). Teen arrested for alleged
cyber attacks on miami-data schools. Retrieved from https://thehill.com/policy/cybersecurity/514998-teenager-arrested-for-alleged-cyberattacks-on-miami-dade-school-district
NBC News. (2020, September 4). Miami high schooler charged
with cyberattacks that stopped online learning. Retrieved from https://pressfrom.info/us/news/science-and-technology/-527945-miami-high-schooler-charged-with-cyberattacks-that-stopped-online-learning.html
News & Guts. (2020, September). 16-year-old charged with
cyber attack that brought down miami public schools. Retrieved from https://www.newsandguts.com/16-year-old-charged-with-cyber-attack-that-brought-down-miami-public-schools/
Odzer, A., Pipitone, T., & Hamacher, B. (2020, September
3). Student arrested in connection with cyber attacks on miami-dade public
schools. Retrieved from https://www.nbcmiami.com/news/local/student-arrested-in-connection-with-cyber-attacks-on-miami-dade-public-schools/2287613/
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