BY JIMMY LAWTON
North Country This week

MASSENA — Federal law enforcement agencies are investigating a cyber attack at Massena Central School that occurred June 22.

Superintendent Pat Brady said the incident caused a disruption in the district’s network and impacted certain systems.

“Importantly, to protect the integrity of the Massena Central School District system, access to the platform and surrounding environment was immediately disabled, and we are working expeditiously to restore our servers and return to full operational capabilities,” he said.

“At this time, we do not believe that our Google-based systems - including student Chromebooks or staff email - were impacted as a result of this incident and there has been limited disruption to our educational programs.”

Brady said the investigation is ongoing.

“Upon detecting the incident, we engaged third-party forensic experts to investigate. That investigation is ongoing. Federal law enforcement has already been notified, and we are committed to working with them as they conduct their own investigation in tandem,” he said. “We want to reassure our community that we are committed to transparency and will keep you informed of any relevant developments in our investigation. We sincerely regret that this has happened and apologize for any inconvenience.”

Although the attack hindered the district’s ability to live stream the graduation ceremony it has been published online at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qKwLPU4KUag&t=3s .

Massena isn’t alone, schools across the nation have struggled with attacks as graduation approached.

“While we cannot comment on other incidents, unfortunately we are just one of many organizations, especially in the education sector, who have been targets of cyber attacks in recent months,” Brady said.