Widespread Clop MOVEit attack hits Minnesota Department of Education

Minnesota Department of Education has disclosed that it had been impacted by the widespread Clop ransomware attacks targeting a vulnerability in the MOVEit Transfer file transfer app, resulting in the compromise of nearly 95,000 students' personal data, according to StateScoop. Attackers leveraging the flaw were able to access 24 files of the state Education Department, which include sensitive data on students who have been part of the state's foster care system, an initial Minnesota IT Services probe revealed. "Additional steps were taken to investigate and assess the impact of the breach, and to put additional security measures in place," said the state Education Department, which added that no financial data has been compromised and that no ransom has been demanded from the state. Clop ransomware's massive exploitation of the flaw has prompted other state governments, including Illinois, to immediately disconnect from their MOVEit instances. "[State Department of Innovation & Technology] Infrastructure and Security teams moved quickly to respond to the attack affecting Illinois network, evicting the attacker within three hours and verifying that the vulnerability could no longer be exploited in our system," said Illinois Acting Chief Information Officer Sanjay Gupta.