Houston County Schools hit with ransomware attack

• Attackers infected the school system’s servers impacting the computer functionality school-wide.
• The school has postponed the re-opening date for the students to August 5, 2019.

Houston County Schools suffered a ransomware attack, forcing the school to postpone the re-opening date for students to August 5, 2019.

What is the impact?

• Attackers infected the school system’s servers impacting the computer functionality school-wide.
• The attack also disrupted the phone services at the Central Office.
• The school ordered the teachers and staff to not use the school computers until further notice.

What happened?

School Superintendent David Sewell confirmed the malware attack, however, he couldn't confirm the extent of the attack.

“We have people working hard to re-install everything and bring everything back up to speed and get back to normal,” Sewell said at a press conference, Dothan Eagle reported.

• The school has postponed the re-opening date for the students to August 5, 2019.
• However, the teachers will report to the school on August 1, 2019 as scheduled.
• The State Department of Education has advised the school system to not add additional school days to the back end of the calendar.

What was the response?

• The school is working with law enforcement and network engineers to resolve the incident.
• Houston County Sheriff Donald Valenza said that the department is working with the federal agencies, the FBI, and other agencies to resolve the issue.

“It’s going to take some time to get everything back up and running. It’s a very serious deal. It’s not a dire situation, but it is a bad situation,” Vince Wade, School Board Chairman said.