An Ontario public school board is trying to recover from a cyber incident.
Durham District School BoardServes 75,000 students and about 14,000 employees in the Durham area east of Toronto, said in a website statement Monday afternoon that it is still working with outside consultants to help determine the scope and extent of the attack. Could
Durham’s largest city is Oshawa, which has a population of approximately 406,000 including suburbs.
Classes were open at the school on Monday and will reopen on Tuesday. However, through online classes [email protected] Services are still unavailable. Nor will there be a pre-determined literacy test.
Telephone and email service are still offline. If the parent needs to stay in touch with the child
At school, they have to go to the school site. Restoration of phones in schools is a priority. Schools will use cell phones to contact parents in the event of an emergency and if emergency contact information has been provided to the school.
Monday’s statement also said the board is working to ensure that payroll for employees is not disrupted.
The incident came to light on 25 November. Since then, the IT Services team has been focused on restoring critical systems to support school and business operations.
The board was asked in an email ITworldCanada to explain the cause of the incident, but it refers to the online statement, which does not say what is behind the attack or whether digital data was stolen.
in an online FAQ, the school board said that after the incident was detected, the IT network was shut down. In a section asking whether data was compromised, the text of the FAQ replied, “We are continuing to investigate and are working to understand the full impact of this incident. We ask for your patience.” Because this investigation is complex and will take time to complete, we commit to sharing more information on this topic, including whether there are any privacy implications.”
A student safety protocol is not yet a safe arrival program. Attendance will continue to be taken manually and parents/guardians will not be informed that their child is absent.
attack comes weeks later Public release of the report of a provincial expert panel on cyber security in Ontario’s wider public sector (BPS), Including school boards.
A key recommendation is the creation of a single body by province to oversee, advise and demand accountability for cyber security across the wider public service. It will augment current governance structures responsible for sector-specific cyber security risks.
Another recommendation is that the province examine the establishment of a self-funded cyber insurance program for BPS organizations to support the delivery of services such as breach coaching, incident response and recovery.
Ontario Services Delivery Minister Khalid Rasheed said his department has accepted the recommendations in the expert committee’s final report. However, no time frame was given for implementing the recommendations. “Work is underway to evaluate and implement measures that will improve and strengthen the province’s cyber security ecosystem,” the government said in a statement.
