‘Cyber-incident’ knocks phone, email services offline at Durham District School Board
Posted November 27, 2022 5:47 pm.
Last Updated November 28, 2022 9:20 am.
The Durham District School Board says it is recovering from a cyber attack that took telephone and email services down and disabled online learning for the immediate future.
The school board says they were first made aware of the “cyber-incident” on Friday and that IT teams have been working throughout the weekend to restore the services affected.
The school board did not elaborate on the nature of the cyber-incident.
“Upon our discovery, we immediately took steps to secure our network and retained expert assistance,” the board said in a statement released Sunday evening. “We have notified law enforcement and are working to investigate and understand the full impact of this incident.”
“We appreciate that this incident raises a significant privacy concern, and we will be providing updates and sharing more information when we have it.”
The board says while schools will be open for in-person learning on Monday, all phone and email services will remain offline.
“Please send temporary emergency contact information with your child to school,” the board said as it may not have access to that information. “We will be taking manual attendance and parents/guardians will not be contacted if their child is absent.”
The board says most student Chromebrooks will not be working and @Home classes and literacy tests have been cancelled.
Meanwhile, school websites were briefly offline on Monday due to an issue not related to the cyber incident, the board said. The websites are now back online.
