The LAUSD has said that the person or persons behind the cyber hack in early September have made threats on Friday about publicizing system data.
While the nature of the data which the hackers have obtained is still unclear, the district has said that it is ready to inform those who are affected, in the event that suck a leak happens.
“We are diligently working with investigators and law enforcement agencies to determine what information was impacted and to whom it belongs,” LAUSD’s news release says, “This incident is a firm reminder that cybersecurity threats pose a real risk for school districts across the nation. This ransomware attack demonstrates vulnerabilities that leave school districts nationwide susceptible to the significant risk of disruption to instruction, home to school transportation or access to nutritious meals which are catastrophic for students and their learning.”
The LAUSD has also asked the FCC to allow permanent funding for E-rate, citing the reason that this would let the district “bolster” its IT security.
“Los Angeles Unified, along with over a thousand education and technology leaders across the country, urgently requested that the Federal Communications Commission immediately authorize the ongoing, permanent use of existing E-Rate Program funds to bolster and maintain IT security infrastructure,” LAUSD said in a September 30 press release.
LAUSD has been collaborating with and Independent IT Task Force comprising cybersecurity experts in the public as well as private sectors. Also involved is the White House, and the FBI is investigating the incident as well as monitoring the infrastructure of the district round the clock.
The hack was done over Labor Day weekend, but it did not impact daily operations on the campus, because of which schools were able to reopen normally on the school day following it.
The district noted that this hack failed to reach the LAUSD critical infrastructure, which covers employee payroll, healthcare, food distribution, and bus transportation.
“We know today was challenging, but the impact of this incident could have been catastrophic if our teams and partners had not responded quickly and decisively, cut off the hacker’s access immediately and worked expeditiously to restore operational capacity,” said Alberto M. Carvalho, the LAUSD Superintendent, following the hack.
No more threats have been uncovered following the initial hack.