Outgoing Little Rock School Board President provides update on cybersecurity breach
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — The outgoing Little Rock School Board President provided updates regarding a cybersecurity breach he said left thousands of people impacted.
Greg Adams is no longer the president as of Thursday, but he said he wants to see this through since it happened under his tenure. He said cybercriminals were paid a $250,000 ransom, and data was returned.
“I’m sure that people are very curious about more of the details,” Adams said.
In a publicly posted letter, Adams detailed some of the newly available information. He said Friday he still cannot get into some details.
Adams said cybersecurity experts are not parsing through the information to return it to people who were impacted.
“We had individual information [taken], so just probably use your imagination and picture any information a school district might have about an individual student or employee,” Adams said.
Adams said making the deal was a risk, but even in the cybercriminal world reputation is everything. Had the criminals taken the money and refused their end of the deal, it could have impacted future deals, Adams said.
“It could actually hurt their financial interest in the future because then people will not want to work with them,” Adams said. “Then, they could not trust them.”
Adams said he understands why people were frustrated about the secrecy associated with deciding what to do, but he said the board was in a difficult position.
“We hope that over time, the public understands that we tried to do the best we can to get the best outcomes for the most people,” Adams said.
Gloss