A view of downtown Baltimore. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)
OAN Newsroom
UPDATED 2:00 PM PT – Sunday, November 29, 2020
On Saturday, Baltimore County Public School District took to Twitter to state that schools would be closed Monday and Tuesday due to a recent ransomware attack.
According to reports, the district’s remote learning program, website, email and grading systems were all targeted in the attack.
Officials said they decided to close all schools and offices in order to assess and limit the impact of the attack.
(2/3) This provides much-needed time for our staff to continue working to set up the instructional platform and to communicate next steps regarding devices.
On Mon. and Wed., free student meals will be available at 300+ locations as usual, including all middle and high schools.
— Baltimore County Public Schools (@BaltCoPS) November 28, 2020
“We’ve been investigating this from late last night throughout the day with multiple partners,” Superintendent Darryl Williams said. “In the size of our system, we are still ascertaining how much impact we really have.”
According to the county, free student meals would still be available at more than 300 locations on Monday and Wednesday.
(1/3) Our focus today and for Monday and Tuesday is identifying and addressing student and staff device needs so that instruction can continue.
We now know that BCPS-issued Chromebooks were not impacted by the cyber attack.
— Baltimore County Public Schools (@BaltCoPS) November 29, 2020
The district IT team is working to get the schools back online while they collaborate with local police to investigate the attack.
