New Kent Public Schools victim of cyber security attack

New Kent County Public Schools have become the latest school district of a cyber-attack.

In a press release issued by Superintendent of Schools Brian Nichols, the school system has become a victim of a Ransomware Cyber Attack. Files located on the school systems’ internal hard drive have been encrypted so that they are inaccessible without paying a ransom.

“Simply said, we cannot access many of the documents and data the faculty and staff have created and this will cause an undue burden as we work to start school on time and ready for our students to learn,” said Nichols in the release. “We have been working round the clock in order to rebuild our systems.”

Nichols commented that the school system has hired cyber-security experts and a technical team to investigate both the incident and to bring the technology back online as possible. FBI and federal law enforcement agencies have been notified on the case as well.

“At this time, we do not believe any personal identifying information was taken by the cyber criminals,” the superintendent continued. “As we work to rebuild our systems, we ask for your patience.”

New Kent Public Schools will continue with their open house events as scheduled and will open on time. Registration and bus routing is also being communicated to parents, as well as schedules being available to students for the first day of school.

“One thing that this cannot take from us is our will to serve the students and families of New Kent and to be ready with a smile and plan to be ready to learn on the first day of school,” Nichols added in the press release. “We are #NewKentStrong and we will work through this together.”