Shut down of Internet in Lynn schools because of a Computer Virus

The schools of Lynn go to working style of 20 years back due to widespread computer virus that has left staffers and students with no internet access. The Lynn Public Schools were without any internet since March 20, 2019.

Patrick Tutwiler, Superintendent of Lynn Public Schools, said on March 21, 2019, that everything is connected with internet. He further added that "once there was a realization, which happened late yesterday morning, the idea became to try and control the issue. Out of an abundance of caution, once we realized the threat and how big it was, we shut down the whole computer system".

Tutwiler assured the parents along with teachers that the district has been working to solve the issue as early as possible. In the meantime, it is continuing to educate over 15,000 students of a district having no internet access.

"The effort has been gargantuan, as has the communication effort, to explain precisely what the issue was," Tutwiler said. "We have to go old school with it with paper and pen, but instruction is happening and kids are safe. I think a week without internet would be a tough predicament for anyone".

All the teachers in fifth largest school district of the state were sent an internal memo by the superintendent that urges them to avoid using the computers of Lynn Public Schools. The memo also asks not to bring any personal devices on the campus for use, and avoid connecting any school device by using the hot spot of cellphone.

"We know this virus is collecting usernames and passwords to banking sites and other web sites such as Amazon.com," the memo said. The memo thus recommends everybody to go to all of their websites and then reset the passwords immediately.

The computer virus is supposed to have captured the saved sites as well as passwords, along with the keystrokes.

Teachers at all the Lynn schools are working through difficulty of managing the daily lesson plans as they not have any access to internet.

Another third-party cyber security vendor is hired by Lynn Public Schools to fix the computer virus, and found from where and how all this started, based on recommendation of their insurance company.

» SPAMfighter News - 4/10/2019