2026 Slate Valley Unified (VT) — Kairos ransomware; board refuses ransom
Data compromised
District investigation ongoing; Kairos claims ~762 GB incl. ~647 GB SQL with student/employee personal and medical data. DataBreaches.net reviewed samples: student PII/special-ed notes; employee SSNs/salary; spouse/dependent SSNs. Nationwide person census unpublished
Technical writeup
Verified district cybersecurity incident (Slate Valley Unified, Fair Haven VT) since September 3, 2026 — board formally declined ransom payment (September 29 update). Kairos contacted DataBreaches.net (Oct 2–4 coverage) claiming ~762 GB including ~647 GB of SQL databases with student/employee personal and medical information; DataBreaches reviewed sample student spreadsheets and a July 13, 2026 employee benefits sheet with full SSNs. Superintendent stated the district is not yet able to confirm student data was not compromised. Actor volume is not a company-attested census — recordsAffected 0; companyConfirmed true for the incident.
Root cause
Cybersecurity incident beginning September 3, 2026; Kairos ransomware/extortion group listed the district and claimed large SQL exfiltration