KY school district hit by ransomware attack; stolen information may be published online

Officials with Campbell County Schools in Northern Kentucky on Wednesday confirmed media reports that the district has been victimized in a cyberattack.

“Campbell County School District recently detected a ransomware incident which involved some of our computer systems. In response, we immediately secured our systems and commenced an investigation. Although we have taken efforts to protect the privacy of information, we learned that some files were removed from our servers without authorization and may be published online,” district spokeswoman Courtney Sauerbeck told the Herald-Leader in a statement.

“The investigation is ongoing, and we are working diligently to assess what information was contained in the files. In accordance with applicable laws, we will notify the individuals whose information may have been involved,” Sauerbeck said.

The Los Angeles Daily News reported that the Glendale Unified Schools district was a victim of ransomware.

Glendale Unified school officials posted on its website that they are navigating “the ransomware incident currently impacting our systems.”

David Couch, the Kentucky Department of Education’s chief information officer and associate commissioner for the Office of Education Technology, said the Campbell County ransomware attack is the first among Kentucky school districts that he is aware of.

“This is our first awareness of a successful ransomware attack on a KY K-12 organization over the past 30 years,” Couch said.

However, Couch said there has been an increase of attempted cyberattacks on Kentucky public schools that were thwarted — from 4 billion before the COVID pandemic to 76 billion in 2023.

In the United States, including Kentucky, 80% of the attacks by cyber criminals are on educational organizations, he said,

In the Campbell County school district ransomware attack, Couch said none of the major KY K-12 cloud based statewide data systems used by all 171 districts for financial management, student information, or communications for example, were breached, compromised or impacted.

He said the successful ransomware attack in the Campbell County school district primarily impacted data stored on servers and devices that are located in that district.

“Our main goal for the 2023-2024 school year is to improve where we need to improve and keep doing well what we’ve already been doing well, in most categories KDE and our districts are the K-12 national leader and pioneer in education technology,” Couch said.

This story may be updated.

This story was originally published December 12, 2023 at 1:46 PM.