Computers in the St. Landry Parish School system were shutdown Wednesday after a cyber attack was discovered and remained off on Friday.
The school system was being assisted by the Louisiana State Department of Education and National Guard in recovering from the attack, according to Tricia Fontenot, school system webmaster.
The school system’s website was shut down after the attack, but Fontenot said the site was not harmed. The website shutdown was caused by the shutdown of servers at the School Board office. The school system’s website is hosted off site, she said.
The attack did cause the shutdown of the school system’s servers and Windows-based computers, she said.
Portable Chrome books used in classrooms were not affected by the cyber attack.
As of Friday, Fontenot said work on recovering from the attack was “progressing nicely.”
Fontenot did not know the exact nature of the attack, but said it was not a ransom issue.
The school system emailed a notice Wednesday that its technology department became aware of a “cyber threat.”
“We immediately notified all district personnel to begin a shut down of all computers and servers. In addition, we have contacted The Louisiana Department of Education and the State of Louisiana for assistance with assessing any damage related to the cyber threat. The assessment is ongoing and no timeline has been established regarding its completion. Schools will remain open at this time, and all schools can be contacted by telephone,” the report stated.
The school system’s central office main telephone number telephone did ring Friday and was answered, but once transferred no one answered their phone.
Fontenot said the technology staff was “reimaging” the school system’s affected computers.
In November, Gov. John Bel Edwards declared a state of emergency following a cybersecurity attack on state government servers.
The November attack was reported as ransomware, but the state reported it did not pay a ransom or lose data.
A state technology official told lawmakers that 10% of the state’s 5,000 computer network servers were damaged.