A Rutland County school district recovers from cybersecurity attack
The Slate Valley Unified School District is working with tech experts and the FBI as it deals with the aftermath of a cybersecurity breach
FAIR HAVEN, Vt. —
A school district in Southwestern Vermont is recovering from an early September cyberattack.
Operations at the Slate Valley Unified School District have been dealing with this distraction for weeks after staff first noticed the issue when they were locked out of their online systems.
The school district ran into the problem before Labor Day weekend.
“At first it wasn’t really a big thing. We thought our Wi-Fi was kind of just out for the day,” said Caitlin LaChance, a math teacher at the Fair Haven Union Middle and High School.
District Superintendent Brooke Olsen Farrell said employees weren’t able to log in to any of their Windows devices or use the internet starting on September 3.
The situation was first handled by the district’s internal IT team until they realized they weren’t just dealing with a network error, but a cybersecurity attack.
“We’re working with the FBI. We’re working with our cybersecurity consultants and legal team,” Farrell said.
School leaders explained the threat actors were able to access district business documents and personal information of current and former staff.
“I’ve talked to some staff and I think they’re concerned. They want to make sure that they know what they need to do to protect their own privacy,” said Ben Worthing, principal at the high school.
The hackers also asked the district to pay a large ransom to stop them from leaking data, but the school board voted not to pay.
“Even if you pay a ransom and just in, in general terms, there’s no guarantee that your data still won’t be released,” said Farrell.
According to Farrell, the internet was down for about a week, then they slowly added systems back online with new safety protections.
“New software had to be put on every computer staff had to change passwords. So it wasn’t, you know, it was really all hands on deck,” she said.
Immediately after the incident, teachers who use technology in the classrooms and for grading had to adjust.
Farrell said she is grateful schools never had to close. The district will continue to update parents as it hears more and work with experts to learn about how the incident happened and notify everyone impacted by the data breach. And while administrators said learning for students is back to normal, the district’s full investigation could take months.
