NAMPA, Idaho — As of Wednesday, the Nampa School District finished re-imaging enough computers for all students in the wake of a cyberattack that shut down the district’s network last month.
The school district was hit with a malware attack on Aug. 21, and since then officials have been working to investigate the attack and re-image computers for staff and students, said district spokeswoman Kathleen Tuck. Previously, the district distributed usable computers to all staff. Last week, high schoolers also got computers, Tuck said.
On Wednesday, the district finished re-imaging computers for middle school students. Elementary school students use iPads, which were deemed safe to use within the first week following the attack.
The district has made less progress determining the source of the attack. Tuck said officials still don’t know where the attack came from or how much the recovery will cost.
“Our top priority is to get everything back up and running,” she said.
For parents, Tuck said the district still has not been able to update students’ lunch balances, as staff had been tracking everything by hand while the network was down. She said it may take up to six weeks to update everything. Some parents also can’t view their students’ grades on PowerSchool.
One parent, Nathan Stansell, is frustrated by the district’s lack of communication. His son, a freshman at Columbia High School, still isn’t able to access his grades.
Stansell said he has emailed Tuck several times asking for more information about the attack, and that hasn’t yielded any answers. Beyond the emails, he said the district has made no effort to communicate with parents.
“I feel like I’m being stonewalled everywhere,” Stansell said.
Tuck said she has told Stansell everything the district knows, and she was not able to answer all of his questions because the district doesn’t know what happened yet. She said the district communicated with parents through email and Facebook after the attack, but there hasn’t been as much communication lately as officials focus on back-end issues.
This article originally appeared in the Idaho Press, read more on IdahoPress.com.
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