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The Fog ransomware group claims to have stolen five gigabytes of data from the exclusive Victorian school.
The Fog ransomware operation claims to have stolen five gigabytes of data from Waverley Christian College.
The school – which has two campuses in Victoria, at Wantirna South and Narre Warren South – was listed as a victim on the gang’s darknet leak site on 16 December.
According to the gang, the data includes financial and insurance documents, internal correspondence, and other “juicy files and information”.
The gang has not listed a deadline for the publication of the data, nor the amount of its ransom demand.
Waverley Christian College has confirmed it is investigating the hacker’s claims.
“Following a recent cyber incident, Waverley Christian College has become aware that a third party has named the college online alongside claims they have some of our data,” a Waverley Christian College spokesperson told Cyber Daily.
“We understand this news may cause concern and wish to assure our community that we are taking all appropriate steps in response to this incident, with support from external experts.
“From our investigation to date, we believe the cyber incident has impacted a limited amount of data, primarily relating to the college’s business operations. We are, however, conducting a detailed review to determine exactly what information was impacted and will directly notify any affected individuals to provide guidance and support as required.”
“We take cyber security seriously and are committed to keeping our students, staff and community updated as we work to respond to this incident. We have notified the Australian Cyber Security Centre (ACSC) and the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) about the incident.
“We thank our staff, parents, students and broader community for their ongoing support as we work to respond to this incident and resolve this as swiftly as possible.”
The Fog ransomware operation is another relative newcomer to the world of cyber crime, having first been observed in May 2024. The gang is known to take advantage of compromised VPN credentials for its initial access and has also been observed targeting organisations in the education sector, particularly in the United States.
The gang is quite technically proficient and able to go from initial access, establishing command and control infrastructure, reconnaissance and lateral movement, to data exfiltration and encryption in as little as two hours.
Fog is thought to operate out of eastern Europe, and English does not appear to be its first language.
Waverly Christian College’s Wantirna campus has about 1,300 students enrolled across kindergarten, primary, and secondary schools, while its Narre Warren South campus has more than 970 children enrolled up to year 12. The school also employs 400 staff across both campuses.
Waverly Christian College is also a ministry of CityLife Church, which has a congregation of about 10,000 across multiple sites.
David Hollingworth has been writing about technology for over 20 years, and has worked for a range of print and online titles in his career. He is enjoying getting to grips with cyber security, especially when it lets him talk about Lego.
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