Coventry High School in Ohio cancels classes due to Trickbot infection

• Trickbot infection has affected the school’s phone and HVAC systems.
• To recover from the malware attack, the school has reinstalled over 1,000 computers.

Attackers infected Coventry High School’s IT systems with Trickbot malware on Friday (May 17, 2019), forcing the school to cancel all classes and send the students back to home.

What is the impact?

• The malware attack has caused major disruptions to the school’s IT infrastructure, forcing the school to shut down its network.
• Trickbot infection has affected the school’s phone and HVAC systems.
• The school was not able to recover its impacted systems over the weekend, causing to cancel classes on Monday as well.

“No school tomorrow, Monday 5/20 for students due to widespread technology issues. Staff should all report at normal times,” the school tweeted.

What happened?

The school discovered the infection on May 17, 2019, however, the infection started the previous week. Upon discovery, school officials notified the FBI about the malware attack. The FBI is assisting the school district with recovery efforts.

Lisa Blough, Coventry Local School District Superintendent, in an interview with local media, said that the school didn't suspect any of its students for infecting the school's network with Trickbot.

Blough noted that one of the first computers to be infected with Trickbot was in the treasurer's office.

“It seemed like once one machine was infected, 10 more were right behind it. Soon the whole network essentially stopped functioning,” Blough said, ZDNet reported.

However, the school has resumed classes on Tuesday as a normal schedule. To recover from the malware attack, the school has reinstalled over 1,000 computers.