Cyberattack Wrecks Return to School for Mass. District

A cyberattack forced a Massachusetts school district to close for a day, just as kids were about to return to the classroom, and then revert to remote learning for most grades. Haverhill Public Schools made a public announcement when the district computer system was hit with a ransomware attack. School district officials told local media that the IT department had noticed early on the morning of Wednesday, April 7, that "something was wrong with the system." The staff shut the network off "before large-scale corruption of the system occurred."

By Friday, the district told staff and families that cloud-based systems—voice-over-IP phones, email, Google applications and various learning programs—would be "returned to working order." However, Wi-Fi inside school buildings wouldn't be available, making those same programs inaccessible from classrooms.

While IT worked on bringing services back online, early learners in grades preK-4 continued in-person learning, and everybody else returned to remote instruction. Teachers teaching remotely were told to do so off-site.

By Monday, April 12, internet was still unavailable in schools. However, the district made the decision to bring all students in pre-K to grade 6 back for in-person instruction (with the exception of those enrolled in the school system's remote learning academy) and keep everybody else at home for remote learning.

In a message on Monday, Superintendent Margaret Marotta warned the school community that the residual effects of the attack could last for many weeks to come: "As we continue our IT recovery process, we have been advised that a common time frame for a well-managed ransomware recovery effort is one to two weeks," she wrote. "It is important to state that 'recovery' is defined here as getting the IT system back online so the school system can operate. After we are back online and operational, there typically are several more weeks of work to be done making sure the IT management and security infrastructure is effectively more robust than before the ransomware attack. Thank you for your patience. While the process is slow, it must be noted that the rate of progress we are making is impressive. We have an excellent IT Department and we are hopeful that school will operate as scheduled for all grades on Tuesday, April 13, 2021."

About the Author

Dian Schaffhauser is a former senior contributing editor for 1105 Media's education publications THE Journal, Campus Technology and Spaces4Learning.

Featured

  • Michigan School District Installs New Gun-Detection Platform

    Williamston Community Schools in Williamston, Mich., recently announced that it has installed the ZeroEyes gun-detection video analytics platform for its five schools, according to a news release. ZeroEyes is the only solution of its kind with a U.S. Department of Homeland Security SAFETY Act Designation and adds an AI gun-detection and intelligent situational awareness software layer into existing school security cameras.

  • University of Connecticut Upgrades Basketball Facility’s AV Systems

    The University of Connecticut recently partnered with Metinteractive to upgrade the AV systems of the Gampel Pavilion basketball facility on its campus in Mansfield, Conn., according to a news release.

  • Cedar Crest College to Build Criminal Justice Facility

    Cedar Crest College recently announced it will create a new Expert Witness Training Center and Crime Scene Lab for its campus in Allentown, Pa., according to a news release. The college is one of eight in the country to have earned Forensic Science Educational Programs Accreditation Commission (FEPAC) accreditation for its undergraduate and graduate programs.

  • Studio G Announces Completion of New Massachusetts Elementary School

    The Groton-Dunstable Regional School District in Groton, Mass., recently announced the completion of a new elementary school, according to a news release. Florence Roche Elementary School measures in at 110,000 square feet and has the capacity for 645 students in grades K–4.