Berkeley County Schools

History

2023: 20,000 students in West Virginia stayed away from school for days due to cyberattack

On February 3, 2023, it became known that Berkeley County Schools had a massive malfunction of computer networks caused by a cyber attack. As a result of the incident, almost 20 thousand students in West Virginia were forced to miss classes, and various planned events had to be canceled.

The hacker invasion was reported by the superintendent of schools Ronald Stephens. It is known that the attack provoked problems in the operation of various Internet services and led to the disconnection of telephone communications. The leadership of the affected educational institutions sent information about the incident to specialized structures: experts are trying to establish the source of the attack.

Students in West Virginia left out of school for days due to cyberattack

Berkeley County schools experienced a network failure, which limited IT operations throughout the district. Our team promptly notified law enforcement and launched an investigation to establish the cause and extent of the incident. This is an active joint investigation involving cybersecurity specialists. We want our students and community to know that we attach great importance to maintaining the integrity and security of the data that we store in our systems, and we are working hard to restore operations, "Stevens said.

As of February 7, 2023, there was no information about whether the hack was related to a ransomware attack. It is not clear whether any personal information about students was stolen. But it is noted that the computer systems of Berkeley County schools store a large amount of confidential data, including court orders and emergency contacts. It is emphasized that students' computer devices were not affected during the cyber intrusion. Recovery work has not been completed, so the extent of the damage has yet to be assessed.^[1]

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