“We recognize this is a major disruption, and not ideal.”
By Tony Keith
Published: Apr. 24, 2024 at 5:38 PM MDT|Updated: Apr. 25, 2024 at 2:07 PM MDT
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KKTV) - As the biggest school district in El Paso County deals with internet and phone outages, officials announced a 2-hour delay for Thursday.
A D-20 spokesperson sent a statement to the media about the situation Thursday at about 2 p.m.
“Academy District 20 is currently navigating an intentional internet outage as part of a precautionary cybersecurity response. We want to thank our teams who have worked tirelessly and around the clock as we work towards a restoration of our network. We’re thankful for every staff member, and proud of our continued support for D20 students through this event. Our team looks forward to re-launching our network as soon as possible.”
On Thursday, the district posted the following to their website:
Precautionary Cybersecurity Response Protocol
Academy District 20′s (D20) Information Technology (IT) team has worked over the past several days taking appropriate steps to respond to a firewall vulnerability that impacted all Palo Alto customers nationwide, including our district.
D20 acted in alignment with standard cybersecurity response protocols and took extra measures of investigating and determined there was a potential security issue meriting more action from our IT team.
This included planning an intentional outage of the district-wide internet network to allow our team additional time to investigate, ensure the security of our network and work to rebuild firewalls. As soon as this network outage was planned, we embarked on communicating with all segments of staff and families to notify individuals of the outage and resources available.
Next, D20 team members collaborated on a plan for the next school day, while the IT team addressed the incident. It was determined a two-hour delay would be beneficial allowing educators across the district time to pivot, given testing and planned learning would no longer be accessible until network connection is restored.
Recovery Process
Over the past 24 hours, the IT team, in conjunction with our firewall vendor Palo Alto, engaged inthe process of rebuilding D20 firewalls, which safeguard our network.
Additionally, the IT team has taken proactive steps to identify indicators of compromise on our networks. The team continues to monitor our cybersecurity posture and will re-connect the internet when we are confident no further actions are needed.
We appreciate the patience of our families, staff and community as we take these necessary and proactive steps to ensure the network is secure.
Next Steps
We will communicate with our staff and families no later than the end of the day today to outline a plan for Friday, April 26. While we hope to have network access restored, we are planning for multiple scenarios, including the possibility of not having internet tomorrow, 4/26.
Beyond this, we are working with our high schools to ensure SAT/PSAT testing will continue tomorrow utilizingthe district network or hotspots, currently being distributed to high schools.
We want to thank all members of our extended community including staff, families and friends for understanding the complex nature of responding to a cybersecurity event, and for the patience demonstrated towards our team as we navigate this event.
Thank you,The Academy District 20 Leadership Team
The following was posted to D-20′s website at 5:30 p.m. on Wednesday:
Tomorrow, April 25, 2024, we will operate on a student 2-hour delay and staff will report at a normal time to help prepare for this non-standard day.
Upon arriving to your respective buildings, school operations will operate with limited access to internet systems. Essentially, this will be a paper and pencil student contact day, unless internet operations are restored. Please see specific instructions and operation protocols for tomorrow.
As we seek to restore our internet connections, we want to share our recovery process with you. This intentional internet outage was initiated as part of a cybersecurity response protocol. District staff are working through the evening to remedy the issue.
We recognize this is a major disruption, and not ideal. We apologize for the inconvenience, and our teams will continue working around the clock as we seek to return our operations to a normal status.
Contacting Your School
- Your school may share additional information with communication directions for families. Should you not receive additional information, please know district phone systems will not be operational until internet is restored.
Student Operations
- Transportation: Bus arrival and dismissal will be conducted in the normal 2-hour delay method.
- Meals: Sodexo will operate lunch, but their point-of-sale system will not operate, meaning students cannot purchase a la carte items. Breakfast will not be provided.
- Testing: Students will not participate in testing tomorrow given we will not have access to the internet. Please plan for testing makeups on Friday, April 26, 2024.
Security:
- Security Status: School staff may take steps to verify your information for security purposes. We ask you to have patience with our staff as they ensure building security.
Thank you,
The Academy District 20 Team
Copyright 2024 KKTV. All rights reserved.
