Cyberattack targets Center Line schools, forcing classes to cancel

Community members are on edge in metro Detroit after learning of a cyberattack threatening personal information of students and staff within a school district.

About 2,500 students in Center Line were kept home Tuesday after a ransomware attack resulted in the cancellation of classes, as the district turns to the FBI for help.

WXYZ

Families were notified about the incident after it occurred on Saturday. The superintendent told us they have done a considerable amount of work to keep all information secure.

However, parent Miles Johnson says this news has left him with a sinking feeling.

“Just to enroll a kid in school, you got to have a birth certificate, social security and a copy of a license. When that’s at risk, it’s a real concern,” Johnson said.

WXYZ

On Tuesday, we asked the school district about the systems they had to shut down in response.

“Pretty much everything in the school runs through our technology whether it’s a food service, cameras, telephones, educational software,” Superintendent Joe Haynes said.

At the moment, the school district is working with federal investigators to determine where the attack came from and how much information may have been compromised.

WXYZ

“We don’t know what was taken yet. So, we have a good number of servers — I believe that they only copied a couple of them,” Haynes said.

The superintendent told us some district employees were able to work from home. Classes are expected to be back in session Wednesday.