Parts of TUSD carry on without Internet following cyber attack

TUCSON, Ariz. (KGUN) — “School will go on," says Margaret Chaney, President of Tucson Education Association. "It went on well before the Internet, and it will go on well after the internet.”

Schools part of TUSD are without Internet after a cyber attack hit the district's network.

“I think its important to note that hackers are focusing on the easiest target," explained Gary Brickhouse of CISO, Guidepoint Security.

And with thousands regularly accessing a school district's network—cyber criminals often consider schools an easy target.

“If you look back at the past year, there were over 45 school districts hit with ransomware," continued Brickhouse.

According to the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, K–12 educational institutions have become a common target, thanks to the combination of network size and schools' increased network use through virtual learning.

“Unfortunately this is the age of hacking. We are not the first district to be hacked," also continued Chaney.

Luckily at TUSD, students medical records were not impacted. Not every district that suffers an attack is so fortunate.

“We also saw a recent school hack that happened in the LA school district, those students lost health information," Brickhouse stated.

So how does a network with so many users avoid a situation like this moving forward?

“It really is about educating employees on how to identify and avoid things like phishing emails," Bickhouse said.

“If you have doubts on something, don’t click on it," Chaney added. "I don’t think people should be too fearful of things, no more than so than if they got hacked at Target or with their Bank."

In a statement, the district said it's working diligently to restore its systems, also stating that, "Protecting the security and privacy of personal information is of the utmost importance to Tucson Unified School District."