HAILEY, Idaho — A Blaine County school district is sharing its experience after successfully recovering from a ransomware attack, hoping to help other organizations prepare for similar threats.
Cyberattacks have become more sophisticated and widespread in recent years, with many targeting school districts by holding data for ransom until they are paid a fee.
“It’s not a question of if, it’s when,” said Paul Zimmerman, Technology Director for Blaine County School District.
Hear from Technology Director Paul Zimmerman about how he found out his systems were under attack
Idaho school beats ransomware attack, shares recovery strategy
Zimmerman knows firsthand how likely it is for school districts, hospitals, and other Idaho businesses or organizations to become the target of cyberattacks.
“If you don’t have a disaster recovery plan, you need to stop what you’re doing and make one,” Zimmerman said.
In 2023, Blaine County School District fell victim to a ransomware attack.
“It was the Saturday before Thanksgiving,” Zimmerman said.
In addition to being the Technology Director for Blaine County School District, Zimmerman also coaches basketball.
“I walk into the high school gym and notice the internet clocks are not working,” Zimmerman said. “And that was kind of my first key that something was not right.”
Zimmerman and his IT team quickly discovered the hackers had encrypted about 60% of the district’s data.
“That’s the telltale sign of a ransomware event,” Zimmerman said.
When asked if he had ever experienced something like that before, Zimmerman confirmed it was his first time.
Because they had a plan in place, Zimmerman and his team got to work and restored all of their data before students returned the following Monday.
“There’s lots of ways to successfully be ready for these kinds of things, planning is number 1. Right behind that is practice,” Zimmerman said.
It used to be that businesses could measure daily cyberattacks by the dozen. “Now one of the largest banks in the world sees over 45 billion hits on their network every single day,” said Dale Zabriskie, who works for Cohesity.
Zabriskie has been in cybersecurity for 40 years and says a lot has changed over the decades.
“And nobody’s immune. It used to be honor among thieves, and you wouldn’t see places like hospitals or things like that attacked. So everything is fair play at this point I’m afraid,” Zabriskie said.
His company Cohesity offers backup and recovery protection for organizations like Blaine County Schools.
Zabriskie reported that there were over 3,000 attacks in Idaho in 2023, resulting in over $60 million in losses. The vast majority of those were small businesses, city or county government, and school districts.
“Everywhere I am able to discuss with people, I want to share the story of what we’ve been through and how can we help each other to prevent it for them,” Zimmerman said.
This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.
