Clark County School (CCSD) Las Vegas reopened for personal learning on August 24. Hackers attacked her three days later, in an incident reported by The Wall Street Journal.
On the morning of August 27, according to the statement, some CCSD computer systems were infected with a virus preventing access to certain files. The Wall Street Journal reported that hackers released documents containing Social Security numbers, student grades, and other private information from CCSD students and staff after officials refused to pay a ransom for unlocking computer servers in the area.
According to CCSD, the school district currently serves more than 320,000 students in Clark County, Nevada.
The CCSD did not specify whether the confidential information was published but acknowledged that “some current and past employee information may have been accessed or obtained by the unauthorized representative.”
The county said it “has not received any reports of actual misuse or attempted misuse of affected information” and is providing notice to students and staff out of extreme caution.
The statement said the school district promptly notified law enforcement authorities that included third-party criminal investigators to look into the incident. Investigators concluded that CCSD was the victim of a criminal ransomware attack.
According to the statement, the school district is working to restore all systems to secure full employment.
CCSD isn’t the only region that has become a victim of a cyberattack in the new year.
Hartford Public Schools in Connecticut postponed in-person classes and online learning at the start of the school year, citing a ransomware virus that caused interruptions in systems in the network’s infrastructure.
Miami-Dade School saw dozens of attacks in the early days of the school year.
The teens’ computer and gaming system were entering the evidence, Edwin Lopez, head of Miami-Dade Schools of Police, said, adding that it was unclear if the student was working alone.
Officials say they believe there are other attackers. Supervisor Alberto Carvallo said that some of the IP addresses included in the attacks belong to Russia, Ukraine, China and Iraq. It is unclear if there were physical attackers in those countries, but school officials said they were working with international authorities in their investigations.
CNN’s Christina Maxores and Artemis Mushtagian contributed to this report.
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