Concern for Alabama teachers grows as data breach investigation continues

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (WHNT) — Concern for Alabama teachers continues to grow as the State Board of Education investigates a recent data breach.

State School Superintendent Dr. Eric Mackey reassures the public that retirement accounts and banking information are not at risk. He has issued a warning for current employees and parents.

“I would go ahead and be monitoring their credit information,” Dr. Mackey said. “We don’t have any details right now about what will happen going forward.”

Dr. Mackey said there are attempted hacks that take place every day in local school systems. However, he described the cyberattack as the hackers breaking down a door, rather than finding an open door in the computer system.

“The way the agents have explained it to me, they said ‘Look, if you leave a door open, that’s on you. But in this case, you had all the doors locked, the windows locked, but they stood at the door with a battering ram until they broke the door down,'” he said.

Dr. Mackey also said that artificial intelligence has allowed for higher and better security for the state’s system.

“Even as we build stronger walls to keep them out, we feel really good about where we are now but we know that in time they will also build stronger hacks, so it’s a continuing cycle,” he said.

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You can visit alabamaachieves.org/databreach to find out more information or submit a question to the board about the cyber attack at databreach@alsde.edu.

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