A group identifying itself as "Shiba ransomware" emailed several media outlets on 27 October claiming responsibility for last week's attack on New York's Oneonta City School District, saying it stole records containing information on students, parents and staff and threatening to publish them in eight days. Superintendent Thomas Brindley confirmed the district is "dealing directly with Shiba" but said the district has not yet individually verified the claimed data theft. The district cancelled classes on Friday and Monday, taking critical life-safety systems offline to support the investigation, and has retained a third-party cybersecurity firm. The claim — the fourth K-12 ransomware claim reported inside a week, alongside Springfield and earlier district incidents — extends a pattern in which school districts, with thin security budgets and prized identity data, remain prime ransomware targets; the US Cyber Safety Review Board's attention to the sector makes this a marker worth tracking.

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