Sheriff: 'No threat to the physical safety of our children'

Officials release ransom note, demand for money

By BREEANA LAUGHLIN

Daily Inter Lake

The Flathead County Sheriff’s Office on Monday reassured community members that there was no physical danger to local schools, releasing information and a ransom letter from a group of cyber hackers believed to be behind the recent school threats.

“We feel this is important to allow our community to understand that the threats were not real, and were simply a tactic used by the cyber extortionists to facilitate their demand for money,” Flathead County Sheriff Chuck Curry said in a press release.

The ransom letter uses personal, private information about certain students in the Columbia Falls School District as an extortion tool for money. The group, which refers to itself as TheDarkOverlord Solutions, is located outside of the United States and is also the subject of active investigations by authorities in other parts of the country, according to the sheriff’s office.

Curry told the Inter Lake he believes the threats made by the group were basically a “scare tactic” to incite fear prior to issuing their ransom for money.

“We fully understand the concern and fear that has resulted from this cyber attack, and want the community to know that all the valley law enforcement agency heads feel there is no threat to the physical safety of our children,” he said.

The ransom letter was received via email by members of the Columbia Falls School District on Monday. The sender describes itself as “an organised [sic] entity of creatures who are motivated only by their love for internet money and are responsible for some of the most serious breaches and security violation incidents in the last year.”

The ransom letter gave the Columbia Falls School District 48 hours to agree to pay between $100,000 and $150,000 over 12 months — and, in exchange, the group stated they would not release the information they have stolen from the school.

Text contained in the extortion message, addressed to the Board of Trustees of Columbia Falls, hints at why threats were also aimed at other school districts in the valley.

“We learned through previous dealings with other educational institutions that the most efficient way to have you understand and accept one of our offers was to really sell you hard ... We decided to bring other districts into the show to increase the liability of your own district.”

The letter also states, “If you don’t do what we propose, we can and will cause you a lot of financial and reputational damage.”

The version of the ransom letter released by the sheriff’s office redacts personal identifying information of students obtained by the cyber hackers.

Curry said there was a lot of internal discussion about releasing the ransom letter, but the sheriff’s office had discovered the cyber-hacker group has frequently failed to live up to its promises not to release stolen data in the past, even when the ransom demands have been met.

“Certainly that’s a concern and we understand the sensitivity of the situation. But even if the school district met their ransom demands there is a history of instances that shows the information is still released,” Curry said. “It was stolen and is in the hands of bad people and whether or not they release that, unfortunately, is not in our control.”

According to a parent/student question and answer session held on Wednesday, the time line and extent of the information stolen from the Columbia Falls School District is still under investigation, but could include the names, addresses, emails, phone numbers, birth dates and medical information of students and parents, past and present.

“As previously stated, the safety of our children has always, throughout this investigation, remained our paramount concern. We will continue to work around the clock to bring those responsible to justice, and remain fully committed to this investigation, even though we now know the physical threat to our children does not exist.”

Law enforcement officers will still be present at Flathead Valley schools and security will be ramped up on Tuesday as students return after a three-day closure.

“We no longer feel there is any sort of real, physical threat. However, the main focus is to reassure the public that everybody is safe,” Curry said.

Reporter Breeana Laughlin can be reached at 758-4441 or blaughlin@dailyinterlake.com.