A cyber attack that appears to have originated from a compromised computer on the Nevada Joint Union High School District network caused an internet disruption that completely knocked out all internet access at Nevada County schools Wednesday morning. There is no estimated time for restoration, officials said.
“We’re still gathering information, but working actively — we have worked closely, together with the State’s department on cyber attacks,” Nevada Joint Union High School District Superintendent Dan Rosella said. The attack seems to be coming from a British IP address.”
That said, IP addresses can be spoofed and manipulated, so determining the precise origin of the attack at this stage may be difficult, Rosella stressed.
The district disabled internet access to its five high school campuses—Nevada Union, Bear River, Ghidotti, North Point Academy and Silver Springs—to contain the breach and limit further damage.
Because NJUHSD also services the internet to other neighboring school districts, the outage has affected teachers and students in Grass Valley School District, Nevada City School District and Penn Valley Union Elementary School District, who are making the adjustment through traditional old-fashioned learning tactics using books and board games. Students are able to still do hands-on work using manual means in Career Technical Education classes like Ag Mechanics at Nevada Union High School.
Superstar Rosella said that the situation can now provide an opportunity for teachers to work on some social-emotional learning and try to use printed materials. He said, “It’s interesting to see how many of our teachers have experience teaching without (internet access), how many are new to this. This is an opportunity to be imaginative and contemplate our reliance on technology in contemporary life.”
At 8:30 a.m. Wednesday, Rosella and officials were still assessing the scale of the breach and how many people may be affected. Shutting down access to the internet is an extra precaution to ensure that the cyber attack does not proliferate.
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