The Watertown (New York) city school district is the latest to be hit with a cyberattack.
School district Superintendent Patricia LaBarr did not specify the type of attack that took place, but said it happened on July 27 and an outside security firm and law enforcement have been brought in to help.
“At this time, the District has taken remedial and corrective measures to secure the District’s critical computer networks and infrastructure. We are currently and will continue to work closely with local, state, and Federal agencies in the coming days as we work through this matter as quickly and thoroughly as possible,” LaBarr said on the district’s Facebook page.
The school has not received a ransom demand and it does not believe any information has been removed from the district’s network, LaBarr told WWNYTV. However, the extent of damage is severe with district employees cannot access files, email or even print documents and have been told to not even login to their work accounts.
School districts have been victimized at a high rate this year with the majority of them facing a ransomware situation. A string of such attacks caused Louisiana’s governor declared a state of emergency last week so he could call in resources from the Louisiana National Guard, Louisiana State Police and the Office of Technology Services to assist local governments in responding to three cyberattacks that hit districts in Sabine, Morehouse, and Ouachita parishes.
