Massachusetts school district, city hall shutter after cyber incidents

A school district and city hall in Massachusetts were shut down on Tuesday following cybersecurity incidents over the weekend. 

Springfield Public Schools — responsible for 23,000 students across more than 60 schools — said the closures on Tuesday would allow district officials to address a cyber incident that “interrupted the service of some systems necessary for essential school operations.”

Superintendent Sonia Dinnall said they are investigating the size and scope of the breach while keeping all employees off of district network systems. Students with school-issued laptops were told not to access them.

“The decision to close schools is not made lightly”, Dinnall said. “The most important consideration will always be the health and safety of those inside our school buildings. We simply are not willing to risk any lapse in that.”

Phone lines and other services were impacted by the cyberattack. Administrators are creating backup plans for things like attendance reporting that now have to be done manually. 

After-school programs are also cancelled. The school district did not respond to requests for comment. 

Multiple universities and K-12 school districts have announced cyberattacks over the last two weeks as hackers exploit the new school year as leverage for ransoms. UC Berkeley and the University of Texas recently shut down parts of their network after discovering cyberattacks. 

On the same day that Springfield Public Schools announced school building closures, a city two hours north said its government buildings would be closed on Tuesday after a cyberattack.

Boston suburb closes city hall

Everett, Massachusetts — home to more than 50,000 people north of Boston — released a notice on Monday saying the City Hall will be closed to the public after a cyber incident impacted its internal network and systems. 

The attack was discovered on Sunday evening, and only essential personnel were allowed to come to work on Tuesday. The police, fire department public works and public schools will be able to operate normally as IT teams investigate impacted systems, the city said. 

“Our priority is to ensure the security of our systems and infrastructure while also investigating the full scope of the incident,” said Mayor Robert Van Campen. “Our IT department and the Everett Police Department are working diligently to restore full City operations for residents as quickly as possible.” 

It is unclear whether City Hall will be reopened on Wednesday.