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Date: 12/4/2019
CHICOPEE – The recent ransomware attack on the school district’s computers was a significant topic of discussion at the recent Nov. 13 school committee meeting.
Superintendent Richard Rege Jr. explained both to the school committee and the public during the meeting that the attack took place during the week of Nov. 11.
The attack, he said, was “different than a hacking attempt” as the people responsible for the attack “weren’t trying to hack for information” or get information they could “sell on the dark web.” Instead, Rege said, “This was strictly a ransom attack and the whole purpose is to encrypt your files, and then they send you a ransom amount.”
He said the attackers requested the district pay them $300,000, and once they’d received payment they would “unencrypt the data.”
Rege explained his decision to not pay the ransom and said, “I firmly believe when you pay a ransom you only embolden these people to do it again and again and again. So that was never going to be an option for us to handle it that way.”
He said each computer that was “compromised” was shut down “so to prevent further spread.”
Before each computer laptop and desktop computer can be used again, Rege said they must be “wiped clean and reformatted.” He explained, “That means each laptop and each desktop has to be physically touched by a tech.”
The whole process, Rege noted, is “going to take some time” and has caused frustration among staff members. He said, “It has caused, I know, a lot of frustration for our teachers and for administrators who have not had the ability to utilize their laptops or desktops because of the encrypted information contained therein.”
Rege said the attack had little to no impact on student learning. “Fortunately for us this ransom attack did not encrypt or compromise Chromebooks or iPads,” he said. “So with respect to our student learning, it was not a major disruption for them because most of that is done on those two types of platforms.”
He explained it was different for teachers. Rege said, “For teachers, for administrators, for logging in and out sometimes they can use a Chromebook to access the information that they need.”
Rege explained the tech department was “working overtime” to get the computers fixed, and asked everyone to “just be patient.” He said, “I know it’s like anything else, we get used to having these things at our disposal and when we don’t have them it’s like the world is coming to an end, but it’s not. We will get through this. So hang in there with us, we’re working at this as hard as we can and something I hope we don’t have to live through again.”
He emphasized that no one was personally responsible for the attack. “This is no one’s fault, I want to make that very clear. It’s not like somebody did something wrong, ransom attacks come in a variety of forms,” he said. “It could have been something as simple as opening up an email that looked like it was a valid email, they camouflage these emails all the time, and as soon as you hit on it and open it, it’s infected.” Rege extended his thanks to the techs that had not only limited the extent of the situation, but also for working so diligently to get everything back up and running again.
“I need to express my sincere thanks to Andrew Vernon, our CIO and also Ron Rivet, our assistant CIO for doing all this work along with their respective techs, for limiting this to the degree that we did,” Rege said. “Fortunately we had an emergency recovery plan in place, we’ve had that for years, never really had to use it much, but when you need it it’s certainly nice to have that as part of your backbone.”
Rege said the district is hoping to have all desktop and laptop computers that were compromised up and running when school resumes after Thanksgiving break, which ended Dec. 2.