WEYBURN - The South East Cornerstone Public School Division has notified parents about a hacking incident that occurred on Feb. 8.
In a letter to parents issued Friday afternoon, director of education Keith Keating said the division experienced a “cybersecurity incident" whereby an unauthorized third party gained access to the network.
“The intrusion appears to have been discovered quickly which allowed us to immediately deploy countermeasures to prevent further unauthorized activity. Unfortunately, those measures have resulted in reduced functionality and service disruptions to a number of systems across our physical and virtual schools,” Keating wrote.
The school division has retained leading third-party cybersecurity experts and engaged external legal counsel to assist them in containing, investigating and recovering from this incident as quickly as possible. The incident has been reported to the RCMP and Keating said the division will be co-operating fully with the investigation.
“Although our investigation is still in its early stages, and will involve a thorough review and validation of any and all affected systems and data, there is currently no indication that any personal information of our students has been impacted,” said Keating. “To the extent that changes as we learn more, and that any student data is found to have been impacted, we will notify you accordingly.
“We understand your concerns and sincerely regret any inconvenience or distress this incident may cause you. We are treating this situation as a top priority and are working diligently to investigate and recover all affected systems as quickly as possible.”
If anyone has any questions or would like to discuss the situation further, they are asked to email the division at ContactUs@secpsd.ca.
The division said it would provide further updates as they are available.
— Click for more from Crime, Cops and Court.
