{
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	"created_at": "2026-04-06T00:06:38.646018Z",
	"updated_at": "2026-04-10T03:21:24.686922Z",
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	"sha1_hash": "7ccfd2dc071ea249c777e2ab498559934402d035",
	"title": "Virginia school district open despite LockBit ransomware attack",
	"llm_title": "",
	"authors": "",
	"file_creation_date": "0001-01-01T00:00:00Z",
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	"plain_text": "Virginia school district open despite LockBit ransomware attack\r\nBy Jonathan Greig\r\nPublished: 2023-10-02 · Archived: 2026-04-05 19:06:31 UTC\r\nA school district in Virginia has managed to keep classrooms open despite facing an attack from a notorious\r\nRussian ransomware gang.\r\nFauquier County Public Schools runs 20 elementary, middle and high schools for more than 11,200 students. The\r\ncounty is about an hour from Washington, D.C.\r\nA spokesperson for the district confirmed to Recorded Future News that it suffered a ransomware attack on\r\nSeptember 12 and “immediately engaged cybersecurity experts and notified the appropriate law enforcement\r\nagencies.”\r\n“Upon learning of this, we took immediate action to begin an internal investigation and created an incident\r\nresponse team that includes some of the country’s leading cybersecurity experts. Fortunately, the impact was\r\nminimal and we have been fully operational,” they said.\r\n“At this time we do not believe that any personal student or staff information has been compromised. We are\r\ngrateful to our teachers and staff who have remained focused on the education of our students.”\r\nThe LockBit ransomware gang said on Sunday that it was behind the attack, giving the school district until\r\nOctober 19 to pay an undisclosed ransom for an unknown amount of data. The school district did not respond to\r\nrequests for comment about what information may have been taken or whether a ransom would be paid.\r\n#Lockbit #ransomware group has allegedly #hacked the Fauquier County Public Schools\r\n(@FCPS1News), a public school district in #Virginia, #UnitedStates... pic.twitter.com/RJtsQqOhkO\r\n— BetterCyber (@_bettercyber_) October 1, 2023\r\nSince the school year began, dozens of K-12 schools and universities have faced attacks by ransomware gangs.\r\nRansomware groups have made a point of targeting schools at the beginning and the end of school years, hoping\r\nthat the pressure of opening day, final exams and graduations will force schools into paying exorbitant ransoms.\r\nPrince George's County Public Schools — about an hour and a half away from Fauquier County — suffered its\r\nown attack on August 15 which brought down the schools’ email and phone lines.\r\nOver the last two months, ransomware gangs have added dozens of K-12 schools to their leak sites, a continuation\r\nof a trend last school year, when schools in Minnesota, Iowa, West Virginia, California, Pennsylvania, New\r\nHampshire, Arizona, Massachusetts and more dealt with outages as well as the theft of sensitive student and\r\nemployee data.\r\nWhile some have faced days-long shutdowns, others have been able to avoid being grievously affected by attacks.\r\nhttps://therecord.media/virginia-school-district-open-lockbit\r\nPage 1 of 3\n\nMost prolific\r\nransomware groups as of September 2023.\r\nThe LockBit ransomware gang continues to operate with near impunity, remaining the most prolific attackers\r\ncurrently operating. The gang crippled a major hospital network in New York, a city in France and an electrical\r\norganization run by the government of Montreal all in the last month.\r\nhttps://therecord.media/virginia-school-district-open-lockbit\r\nPage 2 of 3\n\nJonathan Greig\r\nis a Breaking News Reporter at Recorded Future News. Jonathan has worked across the globe as a journalist since\r\n2014. Before moving back to New York City, he worked for news outlets in South Africa, Jordan and Cambodia.\r\nHe previously covered cybersecurity at ZDNet and TechRepublic.\r\nSource: https://therecord.media/virginia-school-district-open-lockbit\r\nhttps://therecord.media/virginia-school-district-open-lockbit\r\nPage 3 of 3",
	"extraction_quality": 1,
	"language": "EN",
	"sources": [
		"ETDA"
	],
	"references": [
		"https://therecord.media/virginia-school-district-open-lockbit"
	],
	"report_names": [
		"virginia-school-district-open-lockbit"
	],
	"threat_actors": [],
	"ts_created_at": 1775433998,
	"ts_updated_at": 1775791284,
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	"ts_modification_date": 0,
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