School student organization hit in ransomware attack

National school students' organization LAKS was hit in a ransomware attack that left its exam complaint website off line from 4:00 p.m. on Thursday until Friday morning. According to the organization, they were infected by WannaCry, the ransomware that infected some 200 thousand computers in 150 countries last weekend, NU.nl reports.

"We have been affected by the same cyber attack that affected hospitals in Britain last week", a LAKS spokesperson said, according to the newspaper. Ransomware blocks access to an infected computer. If the user wants to regain access to his files, he has to pay a ransome to the attackers for a password to unlock the computer. LAKS did not have to pay a ransom, according to the spokesperson. "We luckily have a backup of all the complaints about school exams this year. We placed it on another server this morning.

As far as is known, Q Park parking garages were the only major WannaCry infection in the Netherlands. The LAKS exam site was affected because its system administrator's server was infected.