(Glenwood) -- Glenwood's School District starts the new academic year with a major technology-related hangover.
Superintendent Devin Embray tells KMA News the district is still recovering from a cyber attack late last month that left the district's computer systems "dead in the water."
"We had problems accessing our file servers," said Embray, "not all of them, but some of them. And, we were involved in a cyber attack, where a virus called RAID was introduced into our system, that it encrypted many of our servers, and didn't allow us to access them. We were held hostage by a ransom ware attack."
Embray says it's believed the attack originated from the Ukraine. He says a security system, along with a legal firm, helped school officials determine how the virus entered the district's computers.
"We feel pretty good in saying the virus came in through a user that had elevated privileges," he said. "that either stayed logged on to our system, and someone came in and opened it up. Something on top of that allowed the virus to get in, or the virus came in through that user's elevated privileges, and got into that file system that way."
Embray says Todd Steckleberg, the district's technology director, has been working with the security system to update policies and procedures, in order to avoid future attacks from happening. He adds the updated procedures will make for some inconveniences for staff members.
"A lot of times when things like this happen," said Embray, "convenience goes away. So, there's a lot of things we'll probably be changing going forward that will cause a little bit of a grumble from the staff. But, in the hopes of keeping ourselves from getting attacked again, we're going to do them."
Fortunately, Embray says systems related to student information were not impacted by the virus.
"We were very, very, very fortunate in our attack that our HR system server did not get hit," he said, "nor did any confidential information get hit. It was a lot of our other working file servers that we need just to be able to do our job every day. So, our student information system was encrypted, but none of the information was taken. The security system that did the investigation confirmed that."
While saying the district's computers will be ready for the new school year, the superintendent adds preparations are behind. Embray says the district's administrators, instructors and support staff have been working overtime to make sure scheduling and other pieces are in place for the start of school next week.
Gloss