Finalsite ransomware disrupts thousands of school websites and online services

On 4 January 2022, ransomware was detected in the systems of school website and communications provider Finalsite. Finalsite deliberately took affected infrastructure offline to contain the intrusion, disrupting approximately 5,000 customer school websites and associated digital services. Some schools also lost access to registration forms, administrative logins or communications tools during restoration. The provider reported no evidence that customer data had been accessed or extracted; the website outages were principally caused by its containment measures, not demonstrated destructive effects of the malware on every hosted site.