Saginaw Township schools investigating ransomware attack | News

An investigation is being done about a ransomware attack that happened to Saginaw Township Community Schools.

Saginaw Township Community Schools Superintendent, Bruce Martin knew there might be a problem last Sunday.

“We were starting to get some emails from teachers saying they were having trouble getting into our network,” Martin said.

Turns out the district was the target of a ransomware attack, but Martin said their ability to conduct the business of education wasn’t affected.

“We have a tremendous amount of support from Saginaw Intermediate School District and their tech team, and we were actually able to get everything back online on Monday,” Martin said.

Carl Heiden, President and CEO of Heiden Technology Solutions said these types of attacks are occurring more often.

“About 90 percent of all ransomware attacks, malware, spyware, all those attacks are initiated by a user essentially clicking on a link whether it be in an email or on a website,” Heiden said.

Heiden said the best way to stop the unwanted disruptions is to make sure you always click on a verified link.

“It’s that user education user prevention,” Heiden said. “Essentially if it sounds too good to be true chances are it is.”

Martin said the FBI is investigating what caused the ransomware attack. The district is also trying to determine if any data was compromised.

In the meantime, Martin said the district will review its safeguards to see what can be done to stop these attacks from happening again.

“That’s part of what we’re working on right now and trying to narrow that down and see where our vulnerabilities are because obviously that’s the number one thing we can do to prevent this in the future is to patch up any holes that might be out there,” Martin said.