Miami-Dade County Public Schools (M-DCPS) announced late Tuesday that its virtual classroom systems had been hit by a cyberattack that temporarily disrupted online classes amid the pandemic.
In a statement, the district noted that its My School Online distance learning platform had been hit by a distributed denial of service, or DDoS attack, that negatively impacted the first two days of the 2020-2021 school year.
M-DCPS had initially concluded that the connectivity problems on the learning platform had resulted from a software malfunction, but were notified on Tuesday night by Comcast, which provides internet service for the district, that glitches on the platform were also caused by the DDoS attack.
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DDoS attacks involve an attacker attempting to take down a server by overwhelming it with traffic.
“At no time were our firewalls compromised and no student or employee personal data was accessed,” M-DCPS wrote in a statement. “The cyber attacks did create a significant burden and caused massive disruption to all District web-based systems.”
In a separate statement released by M-DCPS on Wednesday, the district said that “multiple” cyberattacks had been targeted at the district “this morning,” but that “the District’s security and safeguard measures have been successful thus far.”
The district warned its 200,000 students who were using the virtual learning platform to stay logged on.
According to the Miami Herald, M-DCPS Superintendent Alberto Carvalho told reporters Wednesday that he did not know who was behind the attack, but that he planned to press charges. Comcast was also subpoenaed by authorities for more information around the attack.
“Yesterday I was frustrated and disappointed,” Carvalho said, according to the Miami Herald. ..
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