One Orange County School District Target of Startling Cyber Attack

The potential of a devastating cyber attack has become a growing concern among businesses and individuals in recent years. This week, one Hudson Valley school district found themselves in the midst of a ransomware attack.

The Superintendant of Goshen Central School District, Dr. Kurtis Kotes, released a statement on Thursday, July 11th announcing that the district had experienced a cyber-attack the day prior on Wednesday, July 10th.

Goshen Schools the Target of Latest Cyber Attack

The cyber attack at Goshen Central School District is being labeled as a ransomware attack. According to TechTarget, ransomware is malicious software that, "locks and encrypts a victim's data, files, devices or systems, rendering them inaccessible and unusable until the attacker receives a ransom payment."

Dr. Kotes explained in his statement that the attack has resulted in the disablement of all district computers and access to school-related accounts like emails and phone inboxes. While the attack was launched against the school on Wednesday, the district remains unable to access these accounts and use district computers.

There has been no specific mention of a demand for money at this time.

Law enforcement and cyber security experts are currently investigating the attack and are working to resolve the outages as swiftly as possible. There's no word just yet on who launched this recent ransomware attack or why they targeted Goshen Central School Districts.

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Goshen Central School District Still Open and Operating

Despite the outages and investigation into the attack, Goshen Central School District is still open for in-person meetings. All of their summer programs will also be operating as normal according to Superintendant Dr. Kotes.

No other school district in the Orange County area or Hudson Valley have reported cyber-attacks.