Cyber Attack Disrupts Clover Park School District Networks

LAKEWOOD, WA — An apparent ransomware attack has taken over the Clover Park School District's website, and now hackers are threatening to release private data stolen in the takeover.

According to the district, the issue began last week when technical issues disrupted their computer system and knocked their website down. School officials say they are not sure how hackers managed to breach their system, but they have hired a team of third-party cybersecurity experts to investigate and learn more. Federal authorities are also being notified of the issue.

Until the problem is resolved, the district will be using a temporary website.

They'll want to resolve the issue quickly, because as KIRO 7 reports, a group claiming to be behind the hack have begun posting threats online, saying they stole about 5 GB of private data from the school's servers. The group says they will be publishing it in pieces, unless the district is willing to pay a ransom.

The group has already posted some files, including one that appears to be a letter from the school's human resources department placing an employee on administrative leave. The other is a letter addressing parents about their child's grades, though as KIRO 7 notes, the address on that letter does not exist in Pierce County property records.

The district says they are aware of the posting, and are working to determine what data may have been compromised.

"Protecting the privacy of our students, staff, and faculty and ensuring the security of information stored on our systems are among our highest priorities," the district said. "We have an active and vigorous investigation into the nature and scope of this system outage. If we determine that the system outage impacted you or your personal information, we will move as quickly as possible to notify you of the same."

The school has promised further updates to students and parents as the situation evolves. In the meantime, classes will continue as scheduled.