The Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) called on all employees, students, and families to reset their passwords after a ransomware attack occurred on the school district’s information technology (IT) systems over Labor Day weekend, according to a September 6 news release.
The district detected unusual activity, which was confirmed as an external cyberattack on their IT assets, according to their Twitter.
“I want to thank our students, families, and employees for doing their part in the ongoing recovery from this weekend’s cyberattack,” Superintendent Alberto M. Carvalho said. “While all critical systems are now active, it is imperative for our students and employees to reset their passwords to regain access.”
LAUSD was able to bring their systems back up and running within the first two hours of Tuesday’s school day and provide a full day of instruction to their students.
“If Los Angeles Unified had lost its ability to run school buses, over 40,000 students would not have been able to get to school. If our food services or payroll system had been compromised, the implications both in the lives of students and employees would have been significant,” Carvalho said.
“We know today was challenging, but the impact of this incident could have been catastrophic if our teams and partners had not responded quickly and decisively, cut off the hacker’s access immediately, and worked expeditiously to restore operational capacity,” he added.
An ongoing investigation involving the Department of Education, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, and local law enforcement continues.
