Delano Public Schools return to class Thursday after cyber incident; latest district to see cyberattack - kare11.com

LOCAL NEWS Delano Public Schools return to class Thursday after cyber incident; latest district to see cyberattack District officials say thousands of pages were printed across the district with the word 'ransomware' across the top on Tuesday morning. DELANO, Minn. — A suspected ransomware attack on the Delano Public School District led to canceled classes across the district on Wednesday. Early Tuesday morning, Superintendent Matt Schoen says printers districtwide started printing thousands of pages with 'ransomware' written across the top, with an encrypted message below. "When something like that happens, the system automatically turns off the internet and shuts things down," Schoen said Wednesday. "That allowed us to, even before human connection with the system, have already contained the access of what the potential cyber incident was going to be." Schoen says the district has a 'high level of confidence' that the student information system, as well as Google Classroom and Gmail, were not accessed. "There was a server that was accessed in about a handful of devices that we know of right now," he said. "We just don't know to what extent of the information that we would have locally inside the district that was accessed." Wednesday was already scheduled to be an early release day, and switching to e-learning would have required a late start, leading the district to cancel classes altogether. Schoen says the district will not have to make up the day. This cyberattack is the latest in several instances of hacks that Minnesota districts have seen in recent months and years. "It's not if, but when it's going to happen," Schoen said. "That's our new reality." In April, the Spring Lake Park school district was closed for days due to a ransomware attack. Canvas, the education system used by both the University of St. Thomas and the University of Minnesota, went offline during a cyberattack just weeks ago. "There's been a rash of these nationwide," cybersecurity expert Bryce Austin said. "It feels like the educational system is being specifically targeted." Austin says ransomware events are crimes of opportunity, and schools may be targeted because many may not have the resources to properly handle them. "Schools are often underfunded. Schools often have technology systems that are years or even decades old, and some of those decades-old systems were never designed to be hooked up directly to the internet, and yet some of them are," he said. "What we need is for our schools to elevate their cybersecurity to where they are a porcupine in a land of squirrels, and the cyber criminals will find other squirrels that are easier marks." Schoen says they'll be speaking to nearby school districts to share their experience and lessons learned. He also adds that cyberattack insurance has been a worthwhile investment for them. "That company will provide that critical response team that is experts in going through and doing a forensic overhaul of our systems," he said. "Like insurance, it doesn't matter until you need it, and when you need it, then it all of a sudden becomes a good rational decision to why we invested in the insurance in the first place." Close Ad