New Haven Public Schools’ IT director fired following $6M lost in cyberattack

NEW HAVEN, Conn. (WTNH) — The IT director for New Haven Public Schools has been fired following an investigation into a cyberattack that lost the district $6 million last year.

Gildemar Herrera was placed on leave following the theft. It’s estimated that the hack also compromised the information for 400 people.

“Ms. Herrera was dismissed following a lengthy administrative investigation which commenced in response to the evaluation of the New Haven Public Schools Information Technology Department by an outside cyber security firm, hired after the breach of email which culminated in significant financial loss to the Board of Education,” Superintendent Madeline Negrón said in a written statement to News 8. “The school district concluded that, among other things, Ms. Herrera failed in the performance of her duties as Director of Information Technology.”

Law enforcement has since recovered about $5.1 million of the stolen funds.

“Since the business email compromise, the City of New Haven and New Haven Public Schools have taken many steps to strengthen our systems,” Mayor Justin Elicker said in a written statement. “These measures include hiring a chief technology officer to strengthen collaboration between the city, NHPS and other IT functions to improve our cybersecurity posture. Additionally, the City has engaged outside experts that have reviewed our cybersecurity and financial procedures and are working with the City and NHPS to implement these improvements — and we will remain vigilant and continue to improve our systems to help reduce the likelihood of an incident like this happening again.”

No arrests in the theft have been made

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