When A District Is Held Hostage

Most of us are aware of cyber threats that face our districts on a regular basis.  We do our due diligence from making sure our IT departments are keeping up with Firewalls and anti-virus software to phishing training for our students and staff.  However, the best training does not always keep us from experiencing a cyber attack.  On September 28, 2020, a Las Vegas school district serving over 320,000 students was hit with Ransomware.  Unbeknownest to the district - the school district personnel and student records had previously been hacked and stolen.  When the school district refused to pay a ransom, the hackers published the information.  
How should your district be prepared?
First, each district should have an Incident Response Plan.  It is a best practice to include procedures on who, how and when personnel should report an incident and what should be done in response.
Second, Cyber Insurance Coverage should not be optional.  As a best practice, review insurance policies to make sure there is coverage for ransomware events and that the policy limits are sufficient based on your needs.  When reviewing your cyber insurance coverage, questions to ask include: response time (24 hour vs 9:00 - 5:00), carriers willingness to pay a ransom, does the carrier have a means to pay ransom in cryptocurrency.
The potential devastating effects of a ransomware attack make it clear that the best defense is a strong offense.  Since ransomware infections are often the result of personnel inadvertently opening an attachment or a link in an email that deploys the ransomware, organizations should have regular trainings and reminders just as if approaching a physical threat.