Hartford mayor: No timeline for when school can start following ransomware attack

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    HARTFORD, CT (WFSB) — A ransomware attack forced officials to cancel Hartford Public Schools’ first day of school.

Hartford Public Schools confirmed that there would be no in person or online classes on Tuesday.

Mayor Luke Bronin said during a 10 a.m. news conference that there is no time frame yet for when the school year will begin.

He also said that he didn’t believe any private or personal information was stolen.

“We are often the subject of cyber attacks,” Bronin said. “This was however, the most extensive and significant attack that the city has been subject to certainly in the last five years.”

The agencies that manage the network infrastructure for the district notified school leaders that a virus caused an outage to critical systems. One impacted area included the communication of transportation routes to bus companies.

“If we know we have nearly 4,000 students that are expecting to come to school relying on bus transportation, then we have to make that available and accessible to our students,” Bronin said.

Other systems were restored overnight.

Restoration efforts for the affected systems continued Tuesday morning.

Lt. Gov. Susan Bysiewicz said that the Connecticut State Police’s cyber security unit and the U.S. attorney general’s office will investigate the attack. The FBI was also notified and is investigating.

“It’s unacceptable and what a terrible thing to do to our kids at the beginning of school,” Bysiewicz said. “We are going to do everything in our power to bring whoever did this to justice, because this is a bad thing and I can’t imagine criminals taking advantage of young kids.”

Tuesday was supposed to be the day that students were welcomed back for the new academic year.

“I feel for the families and the school community in Hartford,” said state education commissioner Miguel Cardona. “They were ready to go. They worked really hard to plan and then something like this happens. But you know safety first.”

Stay with Channel 3 for continuing coverage.

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