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No Personal Data Apparently Stolen In Cyberattack On BCPS Schools

Baltimore County

Baltimore County officials remained mum Monday on who launched the cyberattack November 24 that crippled the school system and canceled virtual instruction classes for its 115,000 students.

However, they were able to say that they do not believe anyone’s data was stolen in the attack.

Jim Corns, the executive director of information technology for the county school system, said at a news conference in Towson that the investigation into that possibility is still ongoing.

“We’re going to continue to work with our partners and release any information as it becomes available in this one particular part of the investigation,” Corns said.

Baltimore County Executive Johnny Olszewski said, if needed, the county will cover the cost of credit monitoring for all BCPS students and staff “out of an abundance of caution.”

When asked about the investigation into who committed the ransomware attack, Police Chief Melissa Hyatt said, “This is a long, drawn out investigation and unfortunately right now there are no other details that I can comment on.”

In an interview with WYPR last week, Olszewski chided the school system for not asking the county for more help in dealing with the cyberattack.

At Monday’s news conference Olszewski said, “County officials do not have full access to all of the information that led to the attack and response. However there is more that we can do and we remain committed to doing whatever we can to support our students and educators amidst this crisis.”

Olszewski said the county government has offered help to the school system in the areas of law, logistics, and finance.

“We provided 40 new laptops for BCPS nurses and contact tracers,” Olszewski said. “Our county IT resources have been made fully available to support BCPS for any technical needs they may have.”

The cyberattack caused the school system to cancel classes for three days. Through workarounds, students and teachers were able to resume virtual instruction last Wednesday.

John Lee is a reporter for WYPR covering Baltimore County. @JohnWesleyLee2
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