Hackers take control of school cameras, locks, and HVAC, shutting down entire Idaho school district
The district is refusing to comment on whether the ransom has been paid.
Image by Jerome School District
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- Jerome schools were shuttered for two days after hackers took control of key district systems.
- The attack affected cameras, electronic locks, heating, cooling, and network access.
- The district says attackers accessed student data and demanded an undisclosed ransom.
- Officials have not said whether they paid, and schools were expected to reopen Wednesday.
Key Takeaways by nexos.ai, reviewed by Cybernews staff.
Ransomware attackers hacked an Idaho school district last weekend, taking control of school cameras, electronic locks, and heating systems – forcing district officials to shut down all schools for two days.
The district first became aware of the attack on October 17th after teachers began reporting issues with the network.
Saturday morning, we started getting some of our alerts from our system internally and some of our teachers really giving us some communication that something is wrong,said Jerome School District Superintendent Brent Johnson.
Hackers compromise critical school safety systems
Located in the Magic Valley region of Idaho about two hours south of Boise, the state capital, the district serves about 4,000 students across eight K-12 schools, including five elementary schools.
Beyond infiltrating the networks and accessing student data, the attackers gained control of various internet-connected systems, forcing the district to cancel school for all students on Monday and Tuesday and reschedule parent-teacher conference night.
The hackers compromised the school’s surveillance camera system, electronic door lock systems, and the district’s heating, ventilation, and air conditioning systems (HVAC).
Johnson described the compromised systems as “essential” to the safety of students and teachers doing their jobs – and the reason closing the schools was the best option.
When you’re talking about cameras and door locks and our air-conditioning and heating systems and in our Internet, they are really core systems to make sure that our students are safe and our our faculty can do a world class lessons every day,said Jerome School District Superintendent Brent Johnson.
Hackers threaten data leak
Johnson told local news station KMVT on Tuesday that IT teams “worked around the clock to restore the network and to identify what information may have been compromised.”
The superintendent also said that already established incident response procedures helped contain the damage, limiting the hackers' access to even more sensitive data.
Still, the attackers wasted no time threatening to expose student data unless the district paid an undisclosed ransom. The school district is also not revealing exactly how much student data was stolen, nor the category.
“At this point, we’ve been working with the cyber security experts on our own technical team to try and prevent anything from being captured that we have to deal with, but it’s it’s an ongoing struggle,” Johnson said.
Unclear if ransom was paid
Johnson said the district is focused on protecting its students, staff, data, and systems while pursuing prosecution of the attackers.
Stating that he would rather see the “cybercriminals behind bars,” Johnson also acknowledged the “difficult decision surrounding ransom payments,” and noted that other organizations have paid.
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The superintendent did not confirm whether the district was planning to pay the ransom or had already done so.
According to the latest reports by KMVT, schools are set to reopen on Wednesday.
