Key facts
- Hackers seized control of cameras, electronic locks, and heating systems at an Idaho school district, forcing officials to close all schools for two days.
- District officials said attackers accessed student data and demanded a ransom that has not been disclosed.
- Officials have declined to say whether the district paid the ransom.
- The district canceled classes for all students on Monday and Tuesday.
Hackers seized cameras, electronic locks and heating systems at the Jerome School District in Idaho, forcing a two-day shutdown of all eight schools after officials learned of the attack on October 17th.
Superintendent Brent Johnson said the district started getting internal alerts and teacher reports of trouble on Saturday morning. “we started getting some of our alerts from our system internally,” Johnson said. He said the locked doors, cameras and heating equipment were essential to keeping students and teachers safe, and those systems forced the closure.
The district runs eight K-12 schools with about 4,000 students, five of them elementary schools. It sits in Idaho’s Magic Valley region, about two hours south of Boise. The district called off classes for every student on Monday and Tuesday and moved parent-teacher conference night.
According to KMVT, the district plans to reopen schools on Wednesday. Speaking to KMVT on Tuesday, Johnson said technology staff worked without stopping to restore the network and determine what data might have been exposed.
District officials said intruders reached student records and demanded an undisclosed ransom. The intruders said they would publish student information if the district did not pay a sum it has not revealed. The district has not said how much student information was taken or what data was involved.
Officials have declined to say whether the district paid the ransom, and the superintendent would not say if the district intended to pay or had already made a payment. Johnson said he wants the cybercriminals locked up, described the choice about paying as difficult and pointed out that other organizations have paid.
Johnson said current incident response steps contained the harm and kept intruders out of more sensitive information. He said the district is working with its own technical team of cybersecurity experts and described the effort as an ongoing struggle. The district focuses on protecting students, employees, information and networks while pursuing prosecution of the attackers.
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