On Monday morning, Rialto Schools in California were attacked and suspended remote learning after their servers were compromised. The malware was intended to damage computers.
And now employees are collecting computers and devices to check for possible breaches.
The motive for the attack?
School representatives say that so far no ransom has been demanded, but if all the malware attack wanted to do was cause chaos at the start of the school year… it succeeded.
Syeda Jafri, a spokesperson for RUSD, said, “We are dealing with something that is out of our control.” She continued her statements via social media , saying, “Rialto Unified School District is dealing with a malware attack.”
Jafri says the server that powers all the school’s computers was attacked just as the school year. And we already know it’s not easy for parents since classes are being held remotely. She continues, “We have contacted parents, students and of course our staff as we will have to suspend our operations indefinitely.”
Maya Levine says, “In general, these types of attacks are quite serious, and the conservative approach that the school complex is taking is the right one.” Regarding the server, she said, “There is a high probability that all devices connected to the server are experiencing the same problem.”
Jay Gehringer was the educational director for cybersecurity at North Hollywood High.
He coached students who excelled at national level in hacking competitions.
He says, "The bad guys have gotten much better at hacking than the good guys have gotten at securing computers . The world is changing fast, the bad guys are getting better and faster, and we just need to understand that our school systems and our teachers are doing the best they can to educate our kids."
And the investigation into the hacking continues.
