South St. Paul Public Schools alerted families this week to an ongoing technology disruption that is being investigated.

Staff and families were notified Monday of technical difficulties “that may disrupt certain services” like online platforms, emails and other digital services. On Tuesday the district said it had been made aware of “unauthorized activity within our computer network.”

Once the unusual activity was discovered, “We took our systems offline to isolate the issue,” the district said in a note to families Tuesday. “We then engaged a third-party cybersecurity firm to assist us with systems recovery and investigate the cause and scope of the unauthorized activity.”

As the investigation is ongoing, the district said it is focusing on restoring all its systems and helping students and staff maintain a productive learning environment.

“While we have proactively taken steps to create a secure online environment, we also acknowledge that cyber threats are unfortunately a part of the world we live in,” the district said in the note.

As of Wednesday afternoon, South St. Paul Public Schools officials had not returned a request for comment.

Recent cyber threats

The St. Paul school district notified more than 43,000 families last year about a “data security incident” that took place in February 2023. Student names and email addresses were the only information in the “unauthorized access,” according to St. Paul Public Schools.

The University of Minnesota acknowledged a data breach last year that resulted in compromised personal information about students, prospective students and employees across a 30-year period from 1989 to August 2021. Names, addresses, phone numbers, Social Security numbers, driver’s licenses and passport information were all potentially targeted in the breach.

Minneapolis Public Schools fell victim to a ransomware attack last year that led to confidential student documents being put online after refusal to pay a $1 million ransom, the Associated Press reported. The exposed data included sexual assault cases, medical records and discrimination complaints.

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