NEENAH, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) – Neenah Joint School District is still navigating a technology shutdown.
“It was an attack on our system, yes,” said Superintendent Mary Pfeiffer on Tuesday.
Director of the Cyber Security Center of Excellence in the College of Business and UW-Oshkosh, Michael Patton, says even if Neenah schools took every preventative step, everyone gets hacked at some point.
“From the CIA, all the way down to your grandmother,” said Patton.
According to threat analyst Brett Callow, as of July, ransomware attacks disrupted 58 United States education organizations and school districts, including 830 individual schools.
“Why would a cybercriminal target a school district?” asked Fox 11.
“They are relatively easy targets, they don’t have the level of cyber defense that you would see at say Oshkosh Cooperation or Plexus, these are the places that know they are going to be the target and invest a lot in protecting themselves. School districts don’t have that type of funds, they don’t have that personnel,” said Patton.
The School District of Janesville experienced a cyber threat in October.
It sent Fox 11 a statement saying, “Our IT Team took immediate steps in response to the incident, and it has since worked closely with an independent cybersecurity forensics firm.”
Janesville’s network is still not completely restored.
Patton says whether it takes Neenah a few weeks or a few months, there should be no rush during the recovery stage.
“If we are going to stop these cyber criminals quite frequently there needs to be a time for forensics, discovering how they did what they did, what software did they use, how did they come in for the attack,” said Patton.
Patton says it sounds like the Neenah School District is taking the right steps, by calling law enforcement and bringing in forensic experts.
Experts say one way to protect yourself from cybercriminals is by locking your credit, and leaving it locked until it’s needed.
