By Kayla Hunt
Baltimore Watchdog Staff Writer
Baltimore County students are expected to return to virtual classrooms tomorrow as local and federal law enforcement officers continue to investigate the ransomware attack that shut down the school system’s computers last Wednesday.
BCPS Superintendent Darryl L. Williams said during a press conference this morning that staff and faculty worked through the Thanksgiving break to fix the problems caused by what he called a “catastrophic event.”
“Our teachers and our staff have gone above and beyond in terms of their dedication, determination and patience needed to successfully weather this crisis,” Williams said. “And our students and families – you all have been so great during this crisis. They’ve been very supportive, understanding and, again, patient – and they deserve our thanks as well.”
The ransomware attack targeted the school district’s website, email and grading system. The attack led to schools in the district being closed on Monday and Tuesday.
Jim Corns, the executive director of the BCPS Department of Information Technology, said students will see the same educational platform as before the attack, a learning management system called Schoology. He said the school system has also re-established connections with Google Meet, which is also used heavily for online learning.
“Our students will see the same Schoology they are familiar with,” Corns said. “Assignments and grades are still there. Information teachers posted prior to the attack is available as well. We are working through to make sure BCPS has a robust platform of educational resources.”
Williams said that is important for students to check their devices for malware. BCPS officials said they have been assured that it is safe to use district-issued Chromebooks and BCPS Google accounts.
The BCPS website provides steps to perform a confidence check on district-issued HP/Windows devices to determine if they have been infected.
Corns said he was “highly confident” that students’ devices were not compromised. But he said students and parents were also able to report to any district high school from 1 to 5 p.m. on Tuesday to have their device checked out.
Corns said during the press conference that the school system has been swapping out devices infect with malware, but he did not have an estimate on how many devices had been exchanged at this time because the process was ongoing.
Williams said the payroll system was not affected, adding that he expected paychecks to go out on time. He also said that local police were working with the FBI on the investigation.
Representatives of the teacher’s union were also present and stressed that the faculty was doing everything they could to ensure that students and teachers would be able to engage effectively when classes resume tomorrow.
Others took to social media to report how the attack impacted them.
“I am a BCPS teacher,” tweeted @MrsLehmanGrade5. “The cyberattack was real. My device was infected and I lost everything on it. Many teachers like myself are having to start from square one right now to prepare to teach our students again.”
Some members of the BCPS community are still concerned over whether it is completely safe to resume online learning.
“I’m a tad wary of school resuming because it seems that not all virtual tools are up and running,” said Sarah Ditch, a parent of two children attending Arbutus Middle School. “The Baltimore County school system seems to be slightly chaotic at the moment.”
Ditch said that the only issue her children are experiencing right now is trouble with opening the BCPSOne website. However, she anticipates more issues to present themselves tomorrow when students log in for classes.