What to Know
- Schools in Livingston will start two hours late Monday morning after its servers were compromised
- Block says administrators at the schools will use the late start to make sure communication with staff is up-to-date before students return
- The district superintendent says other districts in the area have also been hit with similar cyber attacks
A New Jersey school district is calling for a delayed start to classes on Monday due to a ransomware attack that compromised the district's servers last week, school officials said.
Schools in Livingston will start two hours late Monday morning after its servers "were compromised by an outside entity and infected with Ransomware," Superintendent Matthew Block said in an online statement. The servers initially went down Thursday.
Block says administrators at the schools will use the late start to make sure communication with staff is up-to-date before students return for instruction.
"The Livingston Public Schools were the victims of a crime, and this crime has been reported to the Livingston Police Department and other appropriate law enforcement agencies," Block's statement says. "Our understanding is that these criminals do not typically steal data, but rather render the systems unusable."
Block says other districts in the area have also been hit with similar cyber attacks.
Four school districts in the tri-state have been targeted by cyber attacks in recent months. In August, Rockville Center on Long Island was forced to pay $88,000 in ransom to regain access to its computers.
Local
Faculty and members of the district's Technology Department will be on hand Monday evening at Livingston High School to address concerns from students and families. The meeting will be held in the auditorium at 7 p.m., the district said.
According to the district, Livingston High School will open at 9:50 a.m., Heritage Middle School at 10:20 a.m., Mt. Pleasant Middle School at 10:35 a.m., and all elementary schools will open at 10:05 a.m.
During a Monday morning press conference, Livingston Police Chief Gary Marshuetz says it is not believed that it is a "local attack" or that those responsible are near Livingston, although the investigation continues.
The superintendent estimates it could take weeks for the server to be up and running once again while they work with an outside IT firm.
