A cybersecurity incident in the region's largest school district caused classes to be canceled on Monday, and officials were unsure whether schools would reopen on Tuesday.
Traverse City Area Public Schools families received an email from Superintendent John VanWagoner and a recorded message from the district on Saturday at 8 p.m. stating that “a network outage has affected the functionality and access of certain systems.” notified.
After the discovery, TCAPS officials disconnected network access and worked with a cybersecurity firm to “secure the environment” and determine the scope of the breach, the statement said.
“Protecting the integrity of our systems and the information we maintain is extremely important to us,” VanWagoner said. “We already have strong measures in place to prevent these types of incidents, and we are committed to taking additional steps to further strengthen our safety measures in the future.”
Officials canceled classes on April 1, citing an ongoing forensic investigation, but the possibility of canceling Tuesday is “unknown at this time,” VanWagoner said. He said the district plans to update families Sunday night or Monday.
Upon arrival Saturday, VanWagoner reiterated that the district is “working with third-party cybersecurity teams, insurance companies, and law enforcement to get everything back up and running as quickly as possible.”
TCAPS board president Scott Newman Vail declined to comment, and TCAPS spokeswoman Ginger Smith said she wants to ensure families know Monday's canceled classes were not part of an April Fool's prank. I thought.
The cancellation extends TCAPS' spring break, which began March 22.
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