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The Clark County School District (CCSD) in Las Vegas reopened Aug. 24 for live learning. It was attacked by hackers three days later in an incident first reported by the Wall Street Journal.
On the morning of August 27, according to the report, some of the CCSD’s computer systems were infected with a virus that prevented access to certain files. The Wall Street Journal reports that hackers have released documents containing social security numbers, student grades and other private information from CCSD students and staff after authorities refused to pay a ransom in exchange for opening district computer servers.
According to CCSD, the school district currently serves more than 320,000 students in Clark County, Nevada.
CCSD did not specify whether confidential information had been leaked, but acknowledged that “some current and former employee information may have been accessed or acquired by an unauthorized actor”.
The district said it “did not receive any reports of attempts to misuse or misrepresent the affected information” and was issuing a notice with numerous warnings to students and staff.
The school district immediately notified law enforcement involving third-party forensic investigators into the incident. Investigators concluded that CCSD was the victim of a criminal ransomware attack.
The report said the school district was working to restore all the systems to get them fully operational.
CCSD is not the only district to fall victim to cyber attack in the new year.
Hartford Public Schools in Connecticut postponed private classes and online learning at the beginning of the school year, citing a ransomware virus that caused systems to crash into network infrastructure.
The Miami-Date School District saw dozens of attacks in the early days of the school year.
The teenager’s computer and gaming system took the evidence, and Edwin Lopez, head of police at Miami-Date schools, said it was not clear if the student was working alone.
Authorities say they believe there were other attackers. Superintendent Alberto Carvalho said some of the IP addresses associated with the attacks had been found in Russia, Ukraine, China and Iraq. It is not clear if there are physical assailants in those countries, but he said school officials are working with international authorities in their investigation.
The report was co-authored by CNN’s Christina Maccouris and Artemis Moshtagian.
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