Posted on May 22, 2019 at 11:11 AM
Trickbot Malware Infection Sends Students Home Early
The new malware infection known as TrickBot struck the Coventry Local School District last week. The malware infection which has invaded the system earlier in the week was only detected on Friday when systems started to fail.
IT Staff together with the local Federal Bureau of Investigation set about finding the source of the malware infection that had affected not only their IT infrastructure but also the school’s phone system and the heating, ventilation and air-conditioning systems.
The danger of this infection was extreme and after taking into consideration the health and well being of the students. Ms Lisa Blough, the superintendent at the school announced that a decision was made to keep the school closed on Monday as the systems had not been restored despite every effort being made to do this over the weekend. Staff however were asked to report to work to assist with the restoration of all the infrastructure.
Where Did This Infection Originate?
Fearing that one of the students may have been behind this infection, it was in fact not the case and the culprit was traced to a computer in the local treasure offices – it was a malware strain known as TrickBot.
How Dangerous Is Trickbot?
In the earlier days of TrickBot, their work pattern was stealing the details of banking credentials and using them to access the banking accounts of clients.
Some three years ago the focus of TrickBot has moved and it now accesses critical systems, generally by way of sending spam email. As with all digital media, emails are shared almost immediately and what starts off as one infected computer, this quickly spreads to the entire system until all the infrastructure no longer functions. It is also not uncommon for malware operators to lease infected systems to others who are looking to bring down the systems of companies, schools, universities amongst others.
TrickBot is not the only malware operator. Another commonly known is Emotet who may employ similar tactics to that of Trickbot.
All organizations are implored to be extremely vigilant of these threats which would effectively result in the collapse of all systems.
These ongoing threats have seen the work of security researchers increasing rapidly as they continue to search for effective ways of combatting these attacks.
It’s Back To School For Students
On a positive note, the Coventry Local School District returned to normal on Tuesday after the school’s IT staff reinstalled over 1000 computers. As with any malware infection, it spread rapidly from one computer to another resulting in the whole network ceasing to function.
ZDNet contacted the school authorities, but they declined to give any further comments on the situation other than to say that school had resumed and that all systems were functioning as normal.
