BC Freedom of Information and Privacy Association
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Police and privacy officials have been informed of a cyber attack in the Burnaby school district that’s impacted internet, phone and printing services.
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.
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, addressed the incident in a Sept. 22 email to families.
“District staff, in collaboration with third-party experts, are working diligently to contain the incident and restore normal operations as soon as possible,” he said. “With 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. Print services are also impacted.”
Hachlaf said students can still access their school email accounts, drives and Microsoft Teams, but not through the district’s Wi-Fi services.
“We recognize the inconvenience this disruption is causing and appreciate your patience while we work to restore services as quickly and securely as possible,” he said.
In its Sept. 25 statement to Freshet News, the school district said its IT staff have implemented a solution for printing at schools and district sites.
The district has also responded to media inquiries about the potential release of personal information.
“We recognize the critical importance of the security of personal information held by the Burnaby school district. At this stage, we are working to determine the nature and scope of the incident,” said a Sept. 24 statement. “As the investigation is ongoing, we will provide further updates when we are able to do so. We deeply appreciate the understanding and patience of parents and guardians, as we work to complete the investigation and restore normal operations.”
Burnaby isn’t the only school district in British Columbia to face a cybersecurity attack. In November 2024, the New Westminster school district responded to a cyber security incident.
“This incident involved an unknown external party gaining unauthorized access to our systems,” a New West Schools statement said at the time of that incident. “Our team took immediate action by enforcing a district-wide network outage.”
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