{
	"id": "fb1eff31-c04d-4313-ad56-6995c9955068",
	"created_at": "2026-04-06T01:29:47.225057Z",
	"updated_at": "2026-04-10T03:22:03.388508Z",
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	"sha1_hash": "bacef6ccf838120c63a4561e85058f6637e2afc0",
	"title": "Ransomware gang wanted $40 million in Florida schools cyberattack",
	"llm_title": "",
	"authors": "",
	"file_creation_date": "0001-01-01T00:00:00Z",
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	"plain_text": "Ransomware gang wanted $40 million in Florida schools cyberattack\r\nBy Lawrence Abrams\r\nPublished: 2021-04-02 · Archived: 2026-04-06 00:27:02 UTC\r\nFueled by large payments from victims, ransomware gangs have started to demand ridiculous ransoms from organizations\r\nthat can not afford to pay them. An example of this is a recently revealed ransomware attack on the Broward County Public\r\nSchools district where threat actors demanded a $40,000,000 payment.\r\nAccording to the Broward County Public Schools (BCPS) website, the school system is the sixth-largest in the USA, with\r\nnearly 261,000 students and approximately 110,000 adult students in 241 schools, centers, and technical colleges, and 92\r\ncharter schools.\r\nLast month, Florida's Broward County Public Schools had to shut down their IT systems after suffering what was reported\r\nas a cyberattack. Since then, the school system has not disclosed any further information regarding the attack.\r\nhttps://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/ransomware-gang-wanted-40-million-in-florida-schools-cyberattack/\r\nPage 1 of 4\n\n0:00\r\nhttps://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/ransomware-gang-wanted-40-million-in-florida-schools-cyberattack/\r\nPage 2 of 4\n\nVisit Advertiser websiteGO TO PAGE\r\nAs first reported by databreaches.net, this week, a ransomware gang known as Conti has claimed responsibility for the\r\nattack. After negotiations failed, the threat actors published alleged screenshots of the ransom negotiation from Broward\r\nCounty Public Schools' attack.\r\nThese screenshots revealed that the threat actors initially demanded a $40,000,000 ransom from the district, which left the\r\nBCPS representative shocked that the threat actors thought they could afford that much money.\r\nThis is illustrated in a snippet of the conversation between a BCPS representative and the Conti gang, shown below.\r\nAlleged ransomware negotiations published by Conti\r\nAccording to the screenshots of the negotiation process, the ransom was ultimately lowered to $10 million, but it was still\r\nfar more than the $500,000 the school district was willing to pay. This led to the end of the negotiations and the screenshots\r\nbeing posted.\r\nFrom the numerous ransomware negotiations seen by BleepingComputer, ransomware gangs always pride themselves on\r\nresearching a victim's finances before setting a ransom amount. They then try to throw this financial information in the face\r\nof the victim while negotiating.\r\nThey also tend to start with high ransom amounts, knowing that the negotiation process will significantly whittle down the\r\nultimate payment.\r\nWhile a corporate victim's financial information can be gleaned from revenue reports, stolen data, or even insurance\r\npolicies, it appears they failed to understand that public school systems in the USA typically operate on a tight budget.\r\nFurthermore, schools have had to dip into their cash reserves to open schools under strict health guidelines due to the\r\npandemic, leaving little room for million-dollar ransom payments.\r\nWhen a public school has to take money away from their budget for an unexpected expense, it is the students who suffer,\r\nand it is ultimately the tax payer who bears the cost of paying these ransoms.\r\nWhile ransomware gangs have successfully extorted public schools and universities in the past, it is not nearly as common\r\nas with the enterprise.\r\nThe $40 million ransom in the Broward County Public Schools cyber attack is the second-most largest demand seen to date.\r\nThe largest ransom is from REvil on their attack against Acer, where the attackers demanded $50 million.\r\nhttps://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/ransomware-gang-wanted-40-million-in-florida-schools-cyberattack/\r\nPage 3 of 4\n\nAutomated Pentesting Covers Only 1 of 6 Surfaces.\r\nAutomated pentesting proves the path exists. BAS proves whether your controls stop it. Most teams run one without the\r\nother.\r\nThis whitepaper maps six validation surfaces, shows where coverage ends, and provides practitioners with three diagnostic\r\nquestions for any tool evaluation.\r\nSource: https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/ransomware-gang-wanted-40-million-in-florida-schools-cyberattack/\r\nhttps://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/ransomware-gang-wanted-40-million-in-florida-schools-cyberattack/\r\nPage 4 of 4",
	"extraction_quality": 1,
	"language": "EN",
	"sources": [
		"ETDA"
	],
	"references": [
		"https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/ransomware-gang-wanted-40-million-in-florida-schools-cyberattack/"
	],
	"report_names": [
		"ransomware-gang-wanted-40-million-in-florida-schools-cyberattack"
	],
	"threat_actors": [],
	"ts_created_at": 1775438987,
	"ts_updated_at": 1775791323,
	"ts_creation_date": 0,
	"ts_modification_date": 0,
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