BC Freedom of Information and Privacy Association
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The Burnaby school district hasn’t yet determined if any personal information was accessed in a cyber attack that’s impacting its internet and phone systems.
A Sept. 23 statement on the district’s website said it was investigating a cyber incident that had come to its attention on Monday, Sept. 21.
“This incident has impacted some of our systems and operations, including internal network services and phone lines,” said the district. “While these impacts are inconvenient, staff are working hard across Burnaby Schools to ensure there is no disruption to student learning.”
Karim Hachlaf, superintendent of the Burnaby school district, alerted families to the cyber incident in a Sept. 22 email and provided an update on the afternoon of Sept. 25. In addition to making changes to school websites to allow parents to report student absences and to communicate with schools, he said district staff are “urgently working” to have phone service operating at each school.
“Upon becoming aware of the cybersecurity incident, we immediately took steps to contain it, engaged cybersecurity specialists to assist with our investigation and response efforts, and notified the appropriate authorities. At this stage, our investigation remains ongoing,” Hachlaf said in the Sept. 25 update. “I also want to emphasize that we absolutely recognize the critical importance of the security of personal information held by the Burnaby school district. Protecting the personal information entrusted to us is a responsibility we take very seriously.”
Hachlaf said the school district is working diligently with cybersecurity experts to understand what occurred and assess any potential impact on individuals.
“It’s important to note that while we have identified unauthorized activity within our network, we have not yet confirmed whether any personal information has been accessed, acquired, or removed from our systems,” he said. “Determining the nature and scope of the incident is a key focus of the investigation.”
Out of an abundance of caution, and as a matter of best practices, Hachlaf said the district is encouraging families to remain vigilant and exercise caution in the event of any suspicious communications, including requests for personal information, unexpected emails, text messages or phone calls.
“Throughout this incident, students have remained the top priority across the Burnaby school district,” he said. “Their learning and safety are absolutely critical, and I want to take this opportunity to thank staff who have been working hard to ensure there is no disruption to learning and operations. Please also be assured that staff continue to work diligently to restore remaining impacted operations.”
In a Sept. 25 statement to Freshet News, Burnaby Schools said staff are working to “restore services as quickly and securely as possible.” The district has reported the cyber incident to the Burnaby RCMP and the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner for BC.
Because of the impacted services, families are still not able to call phone lines across the Burnaby school district. Wi-Fi is also down, which means students do not have access to Wi-Fi at school.
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