The Baltimore County Public School system has announced a cancelling of classes this morning. This was after an attack shut down school systems.
This morning, at 9:11 AM, spokesman Mychael Dickerson confirmed on Twitter that Baltimore Country Public Schools was confirmed as the victim of a ransomware related cyber attack. “This caused systemic interruption to our network information systems,” Dickerson stated in a Tweet. “Our BCPS technology team is working to address the situation. Updates as available.”
This information was tweeted because their website, as well as emails and grading systems, were affected by this network interruption.
The official Baltimore City Public Schools Twitter account affirmed that all schools are “aware of computer network challenges today in Baltimore County schools” and urged students participating in distance learning to only use school-issued laptops that have the proper security functions set up. The Tweet emphasized that students using personal devices “are granted an excused absence.”
TABCO, the Teachers Association of Baltimore County also warned parents to not access their BCPS email from their personal devices.
There is no estimated timeframe for when systems are predicted to be up and running again, Dickerson stated to the Baltimore Sun. There is no word on whether any information has been compromised. Baltimore Country stated that “we do not have any reason to believe that Baltimore Government systems have been compromised.”
They also confirmed that the County’s Information Technology team is working closely with the school to assess the situation and mitigate the risk.
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