ROCHESTER, Minn. – What originally was called a “cyber security incident” was indeed a ransomware event, Rochester school officials acknowledged. The FBI has been called in. No ransom was paid, according to Superintendent Kent Pekel. In a ransomware attack, an outside party seizes control of an organization’s digital records and threatens to erase them if a ransom payment is not made. District officials knew from the. beginning that the invasion of their network was for a ransom but decided not to say so until now, four weeks later, to protect the integrity of the investigation, Pekel said. He confirmed that personal information involving some employees and also some student workers was stolen. It was not believed that personal information involving other students was accessed.
