Little Rock School District tallies cyberattack’s cost

The 2022 cyberattack on the 21,000-student Little Rock School District’s data networks cost the capital city system almost $692,000, according to records obtained from the district.

As much as $242,349.37 of that total went toward the purchase of hard-to-trace cryptocurrency — bitcoins — from Digital Mint, which is a self-described “cash-to-cryptocurrency provider.” The cryptocurrency was demanded by the attackers as their price to exit from the district’s operations.

A total of $172,267.50 went to the Clark Hill law firm of Chicago and to the consulting group the law firm employed — Charles River Associates — to not only negotiate with the cyberattackers, but also to investigate the data breach and recommend ways to harden data systems against further and future attacks.

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