An anonymous computer hacker has demanded Attack.Ransom US $ 5000 from a provincial high school to return course work they are holding for ransom Attack.Ransom . Hāwera High School staff in South Taranaki switched on their computers on Monday to discover a message demanding payment Attack.Ransom for the return of encrypted data on a server containing students ' work and teaching resources , principal Rachel Williams said . The hack Attack.Databreach did not affect student and staff records but the entire school network was taken offline as a precaution . The only devices being used at the school are running off their own data or a hotspot from a mobile phone , she said.Forensics experts from the police , Ministry of Education and the school 's network provider were all working to find the source of the intrusion .

In a development that will do little to address concerns associated with the security of the cryptocurrency market , a new strain of ransomware , hAnt , has infected hundreds of mining rigs in China . The cryptovirus , which some people say first reared its head in August of last year , has primarily focused its attacks on mining farms in China , the country with the highest number of mining farms . The ransomware , in a note written in both English and Chinese , has threatened to turn off the mining unit ’ s fan and compromise its overheating protection and by extension , the safety and integrity of the mining unit . To remove the ransomware , the culprit behind the strain has demanded Attack.Ransom either a ransom Attack.Ransom of 10 BTC to be paid Attack.Ransom or a malicious software that could potentially infect thousands be downloaded by the victim . Although nobody is sure how these mining rigs came to be infected , it has been suggested by some that tainted rig firmware may have been the culprit . On the other hand , some also believe that the culprit has merely taken advantage of the vulnerability of mining equipment that is usually overclocked by mining pools to boost hash power and processing speeds . Presently , Antminer S9 and T9 devices are the worst affected mining equipment . As of now , there haven ’ t been any reports of the cryptohackers actually going ahead with the threat and destroying mining rigs , which would suggest this being an empty threat . That being said , the mere fact of infection has led to several financial losses accruing from many mining operations shutting down temporarily , mining equipment being reflashed or tainted firmware simply being replaced by a new one . Bitmain , the company that manufactures much of the Antminer equipment , that has come under the attack of hAnt has for its part , came forward and cautioned users against visiting untrusted third-party sites and downloading anything outside of Bitmain . Either way , the development is not good news and does nothing to alleviate concerns associated with the safety and security of cryptocurrency-related operations and services .