School computer hacked

CLINTONVILLE – The Clintonville School District recently experienced what Clintonville Superintendent Troy Kuhn described as a “data incident” in which one of its computers was taken over by an unauthorized user.
Kuhn informed the Clintonville Board of Education about the incident at its April 28 meeting.
“I want to make it very clear that it wasn’t a breach, ok, it was not a breach,” Kuhn told the board. “The positive is they didn’t get into our mainframe or our network to cause major chaos to get into our files and ransomware and all of that stuff.”
Kuhn said the unauthorized user gained access to an individual computer, but the district was able to immediately remedy the situation.
“It was traced to an Eastern European country,” Kuhn said.

Access was gained through a spam request, Kuhn said. A link was clicked on and information was entered which allowed the unauthorized user to gain access to the individual computer, but the hacker was not able to get beyond access of that individual computer.
Kuhn said there is no need for individuals to worry about their personal information being shared or for the district to offer special insurance, because the data incident was restricted to just one computer.
As a result of the data incident, Kuhn said the district has increased its safety protocols regarding its computer system.
Board Treasurer Jason Moder asked if the district provides its employees with cyber security training.
Kuhn said the district does provide some training, as well as sending out a monthly spam email to see if any employees act on the spam email. If an employee fails the spam email test, Kuhn said he speaks with that employee about it, and the employee has to complete additional training.
Prior to the next school year, Kuhn said he plans to provide additional training for district employees on what to look for to avoid falling for spam emails.