ETHS opens amid recovery from ransomware attack | #ransomware | #cybercrime

Willie the Wildkit greets students as they head into Evanston Township High School for the first day of school on Monday. “It has taken an extraordinary collective effort to open our doors today,” said District 202 Superintendent Marcus Campbell, referring to a ransomware attack in June that disabled phone lines, internet servers, the public address system and emergency notifications.

He would not comment on whether the school has paid money to restore operations. “We’ll be dealing with the ripple effects of that for quite some time,” Campbell said.

The school recently installed a new student information computer system called Infinite Campus. “Schools are data rich and cyber poor,” said Campbell, “but we’re doing everything that we can to prevent something like that from happening.”