Park Hill cancels classes for Tuesday because of malware attack
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…
