Rockingham County Schools Subject to Virus Attack

A few district school PCs of Rockingham County were compromised with one cyber-attack during December last. Dr. Rodney Shotwell Superintendent of the county schools reports all data as safe and intact. Within one press conference held on January 2, 2018, Dr. Shotwell elaborated that the anti-virus software working on the school computers prevented activation of the virus and its proliferation.

According to Sonja Parks Assistant Superintendent, the malware assault started December 11, 2017. A confirmation by certain board member of the school indicates the virus infected the Internet-connected PCs following somebody opening one web-link within one phishing e-mail. It's estimated the cost of repair would be $314,000. Wfmynews2.com posted this, January 2, 2018.

According to Bob Wyatt, Vice-Chairman of Rockingham County School Board, the repairs expenditure of $314,000 would be obtained from the unrestricted coffer.

On January 1, at an emergency meeting, the board unanimously indicated bringing in 10 IT experts for solving the glitch. As per the district's technology head, it was still being determined what information might've got filched during the virus attack.

Kent Meeker tech expert states the virus known as Emotet is the kind which stays concealed inside e-mail web-links. As per Dr. Shotwell, it came from 3 locations namely Central Office of the district; Western Rockingham Middle School; and Bethany Elementary. Other schools didn't catch the infection. On 19th December, the eve of school vacation, authorities notified faculty and staff about the issue as also told them for keeping back their PCs in the school during vacation. Thereafter, the district was disconnected from the Internet for work by the IT experts in cleaning up the infection.

According to ProLogic with whom the repairs contract is made, the virus' description is of an Emotet assault that the press release stated derailed network infrastructure of the district, particularly storage, servers along with end-user computing systems.

Within the $314,000 contract, ProLogic said it would supply offsite as well as onsite technical resources towards helping the IT wing control as well as eliminate the virus. It would as well provide laptops temporarily and further recommend a scheme towards prevention of such attacks.

» SPAMfighter News - 1/8/2018