On September 7, Highline High School experienced a cyber-attack. Resulting in school being shut down for 3 days, just at the start of the year. It allowed for students and the staffs personal information to be hacked and possibly shared, creating an unsafe environment for students and staff.
According to My Northwest, “Highline schools reopened on Thursday, September 12, but operations looked a little different. There was no internet access as the district continued to investigate the cyber security incident.” What many people don’t understand is how difficult it is for schools to function without internet access. This shows how heavily schools rely on the internet, and how necessary it is for today’s education.
Many people involved were heavily impacted by the attack. Komo News states that Tov Tupper, the districts head of communications, has spoken out about the recent attack. He states how, “We were able to print all out transportation routes with student names, and we will use paper copies of them. It might mean things are a little slower, but we are going to be operating school, and we are really excited to welcome students back.” Sadly, Highline is not the only school to experience these attacks. In 2021, the University of Hertfordshire experienced a cyber-attack that affected the school’s function and systems. When a cyber-attack strikes, it can be very difficult for the affected school to get back on track.
According to Security, “Schools should also invest in strong backup and disaster recovery plans to get back on track quickly to minimize the impact of future attacks.” With how often cyberattacks are happening, it would be difficult for a school that has not taken these steps already. Minimizing the impact of any potential attacks is something that should be top priority for schools.
Being active in our defense about cyber-attacks is something many schools are currently doing. Arctic Wolf sums it all up by stating, “Proactive protection against cyber-attack requires 24×7, real-time cybersecurity operations that can help educational services organizations monitor, detect, and respond to threats not only during the school day, but on weekends, holidays, and summer vacation. It also means having enough staffing, budget, and available hours to continuously monitor, analyze, prioritize, and manage vulnerabilities to ensure students, parents, employees, and staff — and their data — stay safe.” Even though taking all these protocols would be a lot of work, internet safety should be a top priority for every school. Hopefully in the future we can better learn how to minimize the harm of cyber-attacks on schools, and keep students and staff safe.
