Sam Gurwitt Photo
District Chief Operating Officer Tom Ariola.
Last week, the Hamden Board of Education’s computers were shut down after a virus entered the system. The district announced Tuesday that it had been a “malware” attack.
“The HPS computer network was attacked by malware (malicious software) on January 9,” an update on the district’s website reads. “This malware was likely transmitted through a link in a phishing email, which is almost impossible for anti-virus measures to detect.”
Malware refers to any computer virus designed specifically to damage or get access to a computer or a computer system.
The update says that student and fiscal data are stored remotely and therefore were not affected. It says that the district has identified 30 staff devices affected, but that it appears the malware did not infect any student devices. The update says the district hopes to get email up and running by the end of the week, but that until then, parents and others should contact schools by phone.
The attack is the second cyber attack on Hamden’s government in the space of three months. In October, a virus shut down computers at town hall for a week.
“There is a priority list that will be followed into what will be done first, second, third, and obviously we want to get things up and running as fast as we can,” said district Chief Operating Officer Tom Ariola.
Ariola said the attack was not a ransomware attack, which is when an attacker uses a virus to shut down a computer system and then demands a ransom to release the inaccessible information. Such attacks have increasingly hit cities and towns across the U.S. in the last year and can be particularly crippling.
Director of Innovation, Technology, and Communications Karen Kaplan confirmed that the attacker did not demand anything.
Offer is still open to help stop this malware/ransomware. One of our advisors is the industry expert on this, Douglas A. Levin. Ping me or check out https://privacysafe.ai