The New York School of Interior Design yesterday confirmed it notified 18,491 people of a November 2023 data breach that compromised their names, Social Security numbers, and state-issued ID numbers.

Ransomware group Inc claimed responsibility for the attack and published a proof pack allegedly containing letters and scans of ID cards stolen from NYSID.

The notification states that the attack began November 2, 2023 and lasted until November 26, 2023. NYSID discovered the breach on November 27 and concluded its investigation on June 17, 2024.

We do not yet know how attackers breached NYSID’s network, whether NYSID paid a ransom, or how much Inc demanded. Comparitech contacted NYSID for comment and will update this article if it responds.

Comparitech recommends victims take advantage of the free credit monitoring and identity theft protection offered by NYSID via IDX. The deadline for enrollment is October 9, 2024.

Who is Inc?

Inc Ransomware emerged in July 2023 and targets a wide range of victims in healthcare, education, and government. Its methods involve spear phishing and exploiting known vulnerabilities in software.

Inc has claimed 35 confirmed ransomware attacks since it began, affecting 1.2 million individual records. According to our data, 19 of those attacks occurred in 2024. We’ve logged a further 106 unconfirmed attacks claimed by Inc so far this year, including a recent claim against Cambridge University Press & Assessment.

Ransomware attacks on US education

Comparitech researchers have logged 23 confirmed ransomware attacks against targets in the US education sector so far this year, affecting 24,054 individual records.

In 2023, we logged 111 such attacks, affecting 2,060,587 records. The average ransom of all attacks on US education is $483,000. A further 38 attacks have been claimed but not confirmed, eight of which were claimed by Inc.

Inc Ransomware has further claimed attacks on Cleveland City Schools (August 2023), the Washington Center for Deaf & Hard of Hearing Youth (December 2023), and Rockford Public Schools (May 2024).

About NYSID

The New York School of Interior Design is a private college founded in 1916. It focuses exclusively on interior design. About 600 students attend the university, which employs more than 100 faculty members.

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