Akron Public Schools‘ buildings closed Wednesday for a “network outage” caused by a cybersecurity breach.
As of Wednesday afternoon, the district was still offline but planned to reopen with most regular programming, athletics and offices available on Thursday. Office staff would work remotely to access WiFi, Superintendent Mary Outley said in a text message, and other summer programs — outside of credit recovery — would return to their regular, in-person schedules.
Credit recovery allows students to make up failed or incomplete classes through online coursework. The program was canceled for the rest of the week, according to district social media, and make-up days would be scheduled.
Board of Education President Barbara Sykes said she was not aware of the district receiving any ransom demand as part of the cybersecurity incident. Ohio law requires school districts and municipalities to take public action in response to a ransomware attack.
As of Wednesday evening, it was unclear if any student or staff data had been compromised, or how the breach occurred.
