REDFORD, Mich. – South Redford School District canceled classes today due to a cyberattack that may have possibly leaked personal information about students, teachers and their families.
Three thousand one hundred forty-six students were impacted, but their families’ personal information may now be in the hands of criminal hackers.
The district told Local 4 that they are working with its cybersecurity team to resolve the issue. What is unknown is how severe this attack is because when hackers target a school district, everyone is a potential target.
Ilya Elkin, the owner of InNetwork Telecom, is focused on helping school districts and families protect themselves against cyber attackers using phishing emails mimicking superintendents or teachers. If one person clicks on a link, personal information can be exposed, sold, and identities could be stolen.
“People don’t care who they attack. I mean, they will come after as I said, teachers, they’ll come at their principal,” said Elkin. “But the worst is they’ll actually come out after these students.”
The very latest from the district is that their cybersecurity team is continuing to work on this attack.
Below is the latest message from the district.
Below, CISA Region 5 Regional Director Alex Joves recommends these steps to protect themselves against cyberattacks:
Ensure that multifactor authentication is enabled for all accounts, whenever possible
Ensure that critical data is regularly backed up and that backups are both separated from business systems and encrypted
Update and patch all hardware and software
Develop an incident response plan and conduct regular exercises to ensure the organization is ready to respond
Below is the message the South Redford School District sent out to parents and staff about the cyberattack.
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