Ransomware shut down Haverhill Public Schools on the first day back after remote learning, forcing cancellation of classes for grades 2-4. Attackers demand payment to restore access or prevent data leakage. Cybersecurity expert Robert Siciliano says no system is 100% secure against these attacks.
Chapters
Starts with the ransomware attack that will shut down the Haverhill Public School System tomorrow. Good evening, I'm Mark Achenblum, and I'm Vanessa Welch.
Boston 25 News reporter Drew Curtis is live for us in the Merrimack Valley. And Drew, that's where several grades in that district were set to go back to class tomorrow.
Vanessa, grades 2, 3, and 4 were supposed to be walking through the doors here at Greenleaf Elementary and schools across Haverhill tomorrow for the first time in over a year. That won't be happening. Neither will online learning following a cyber attack being investigated by Haverhill Police and Homeland Security.
He was like, hey, no school. And I'm like, oh, you're gonna have to make it up because it's considered a snow day.
An unexpected district-wide cancellation of an entire day of both remote learning and the first day back to class for grades 2 through 4 in Haverhill after the district's computer servers were attacked by ransomware.
I got an email around like 4 saying that the Haverhill PD and Homeland Security were looking into, you know, what that happened.
Jen Darling, whose 8-year-old son is in the 3rd grade at Golden Hill Elementary, among the parents now trying to understand how it happened and what the cyber attackers were after.
Kind of a coincidence that, you know, the kids are starting to phase in tomorrow and then it happens to— I don't know, it's just a, it's a very weird thing.
The Haverhill School District says its IT department noticed early Wednesday morning that something was wrong with the system. A memo from the school superintendent, Margaret Morata, explaining, quote, While it was initially unclear what was going on, the team initiated safety protocols and shut down the network before large-scale corruption of the system occurred.
I think the city's trying to do the best they can. I think it's just an unfortunate timing.
There is no such thing as 100% security.
Robert Siciliano, CEO of ProtectNow, is an expert in cybersecurity and identity protection. He says a ransomware attack comes from an outside intruder who asks for payment to either restore access to the networks or prevent the release of sensitive data.
Municipalities really worldwide are being targeted in such a way where their systems are being knocked out and their data is being held hostage.
And school officials believe this cyberattack potentially happened when someone opened a file containing malware. Tomorrow's canceled classes will be made up on June 18th, and as of tonight, the superintendent says there is no guarantee that Class will be back on Friday. We're live in Haverhill tonight. Drew Karitas, Boston 25 News.
