The Park Hill School District has canceled classes for Tuesday because of a malware attack that took down the district’s critical systems.Classes were also canceled Monday.”Our technology team, with the support of experts, has made good progress on getting our systems back up and running after the malware attack. However, as is common after such an attack, it is taking some time to get everything operating. Some programs are intermittently coming online, and we must be sure they are stable,” the school district said in an email Monday evening to parents.The district said its Adventure Club school-age childcare program will be available for families who are already signed up. Administrators, district office staff, executive administrative assistants, custodians, maintenance and grounds workers will report to work. Supervisors will coordinate with all other staff on who will come in and when.Early Monday, school district officials posted to the district’s Facebook page around 6:50 a.m. saying, “We experienced an attack on our computer systems, known as a malware attack. Our technology team working through the entire night, but we have just learned that we do not have the needed systems in place to have school.”District officials apologized for the late notice of the closure. In many cases, students were already on the bus on their way to school before the cancellation was announced.Park Hill represents the latest in K-12 education related cyber security incidents across the country.The K-12 Cyber Security Resource Center has counted 1,180 publicly disclosed incidents since 2016.Cyber security experts, such as Tiffany Franklin with Overland Park-based security solutions company Optiv, said that school districts and businesses must always remain on guard.”The threat landscape changes so quickly,” Franklin said. “It’s hard for technology to stay in front of those threats.”Franklin, a former school teacher, said she did not know the exact details of the Park Hill cyber attack. She highlighted a December 2020 FBI and CyberSecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency warning to school districts about ransomware attacks and data theft with the increase in online and distance learning. She said districts must continue to remain on guard for phishing attacks and ransomware. “It’s an opportunistic target for threat actors,” she said.Park Hill leaders would not say if ransomware attackers targeted the district, citing an ongoing investigation.In an email to parents, the district outlined a few other details about the attack. Here is more information from that email:”What happened?Early Sunday morning, there was a malware attack on our computer systems. It affected many of our applications that we use for learning and running our schools. Our technology team has worked for more than 24 hours to try to restore our systems, and we are working with national experts, including some from the FBI, to investigate this issue and try to minimize the damage. While we are in the middle of this investigation, we cannot share specific details about the attack, but we will share those when we can.”Why couldn’t we have school?We had to cancel school because the systems that are not working could affect school safety if we had everyone here, and because we do not yet have access to Schoology and other systems that affect teaching and learning for both in-person and online students.”Why did we get such late notice?We are so sorry about the very late notice. We were very optimistic yesterday that we would be able to get everything up and running well enough today to avoid this major disruption, thanks to our technology team working all night long. In fact, when district leaders met at 4:30 a.m., it looked like we would be able to have school. However, we found out after 6 a.m. that we had an unexpected issue that meant the systems were not available after all.”Was any personally identifiable information compromised?We are hopeful that our precautions prevented unauthorized access to personally identifiable information about students or staff, but we are bringing in experts to help us investigate this to make sure.”Will we have school tomorrow?While we do not yet know how long it will take to get our systems up and running, we will notify families and staff by 6 p.m. tonight if we have to cancel school tomorrow.”Will we make up this day?We are checking on state rules and on contract information to see what our options are about whether to make up this missed day of school. We will notify families and staff as soon as we have an answer.”Will support staff get paid for this day?We will send support staff information about how pay will work for this missed day.”
The Park Hill School District has canceled classes for Tuesday because of a malware attack that took down the district’s critical systems.
Classes were also canceled Monday.
“Our technology team, with the support of experts, has made good progress on getting our systems back up and running after the malware attack. However, as is common after such an attack, it is taking some time to get everything operating. Some programs are intermittently coming online, and we must be sure they are stable,” the school district said in an email Monday evening to parents.
The district said its Adventure Club school-age childcare program will be available for families who are already signed up.
Administrators, district office staff, executive administrative assistants, custodians, maintenance and grounds workers will report to work. Supervisors will coordinate with all other staff on who will come in and when.
Early Monday, school district officials posted to the district’s Facebook page around 6:50 a.m. saying, “We experienced an attack on our computer systems, known as a malware attack. Our technology team working through the entire night, but we have just learned that we do not have the needed systems in place to have school.”
District officials apologized for the late notice of the closure. In many cases, students were already on the bus on their way to school before the cancellation was announced.
Park Hill represents the latest in K-12 education related cyber security incidents across the country.
The K-12 Cyber Security Resource Center has counted 1,180 publicly disclosed incidents since 2016.
Cyber security experts, such as Tiffany Franklin with Overland Park-based security solutions company Optiv, said that school districts and businesses must always remain on guard.
“The threat landscape changes so quickly,” Franklin said. “It’s hard for technology to stay in front of those threats.”
Franklin, a former school teacher, said she did not know the exact details of the Park Hill cyber attack.
She highlighted a December 2020 FBI and CyberSecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency warning to school districts about ransomware attacks and data theft with the increase in online and distance learning. She said districts must continue to remain on guard for phishing attacks and ransomware.
“It’s an opportunistic target for threat actors,” she said.
Park Hill leaders would not say if ransomware attackers targeted the district, citing an ongoing investigation.
In an email to parents, the district outlined a few other details about the attack. Here is more information from that email:
“What happened?
Early Sunday morning, there was a malware attack on our computer systems. It affected many of our applications that we use for learning and running our schools. Our technology team has worked for more than 24 hours to try to restore our systems, and we are working with national experts, including some from the FBI, to investigate this issue and try to minimize the damage. While we are in the middle of this investigation, we cannot share specific details about the attack, but we will share those when we can.
“Why couldn’t we have school?
We had to cancel school because the systems that are not working could affect school safety if we had everyone here, and because we do not yet have access to Schoology and other systems that affect teaching and learning for both in-person and online students.
“Why did we get such late notice?
We are so sorry about the very late notice. We were very optimistic yesterday that we would be able to get everything up and running well enough today to avoid this major disruption, thanks to our technology team working all night long. In fact, when district leaders met at 4:30 a.m., it looked like we would be able to have school. However, we found out after 6 a.m. that we had an unexpected issue that meant the systems were not available after all.
“Was any personally identifiable information compromised?
We are hopeful that our precautions prevented unauthorized access to personally identifiable information about students or staff, but we are bringing in experts to help us investigate this to make sure.
“Will we have school tomorrow?
While we do not yet know how long it will take to get our systems up and running, we will notify families and staff by 6 p.m. tonight if we have to cancel school tomorrow.
“Will we make up this day?
We are checking on state rules and on contract information to see what our options are about whether to make up this missed day of school. We will notify families and staff as soon as we have an answer.
“Will support staff get paid for this day?
We will send support staff information about how pay will work for this missed day.”
