Ransomware Attacks Taos Public Schools

Who: Taos schools

When: 21 Mar 2019

# of records involved: undetermined

What happened: A ransomware attack that knocked out the district’s digital services

How did it happen: Taos Schools suffered a cyber attack, with hackers demanding $5,000 in cash as ransom for the return of the control to their digital services. Emails, class instruction and the district website were disabled as part of the attack, which has been mostly resolved.

Outcome: IT department worked 20 hour days to recreate our websites working diligently to restore full functionality to all systems and to investigate this incident as quickly as we possibly can. At this time, however, we cannot provide a precise time table for the conclusion of those efforts. But there’s no evidence personal information of students or staff was compromised. No money was paid and staff have eliminated the threat. The district is working with forensics teams as well as the FBI to find the ones responsible for the attack. The investigation is ongoing.