The Toronto District School Board (TDSB) has issued a warning following a ransomware attack on its software testing environment and is currently investigating whether any personal data was compromised.
TDSB is Canada's largest school board and the fourth largest in North America, overseeing and managing 473 elementary, 110 secondary, and five adult education institutions. The group has an annual budget of around $2.5 billion.
An announcement posted on the board's website earlier this week informs parents, guardians, and carers about a ransomware attack that may have exposed personal information.
"TDSB recently became aware that an unauthorized third party gained access to TDSB's technology testing environment, which is a separate environment used by TDSB IT Services to test programs before they are run live on TDSB systems," reads the announcement.
"We are conducting a thorough investigation to understand the nature of the incident, any impact on our network, and if any personal information may have been affected by the incident," adds TDSB further down in the announcement.
TDSB claims that all of its systems are operational, with no disruptions, indicating that the attack was contained in the testing environment. The organisation has contacted the Toronto Police Service and the Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario, and it is working with third-party cybersecurity specialists to evaluate the extent of the incident.
TDSB serves roughly 247,000 students and employs 40,000 employees, therefore this incident could impact a large number of people. The Toronto District School Board agreed to notify affected persons if the ongoing investigation reveals that a data breach happened, but for the time being, it has chosen not to provide too much information.
Individuals who may have been impacted and are looking for answers may contact the organisation at 'cyberincident@tdsb.on.ca.’ At the time of writing, none of the major ransomware gangs claimed responsibility for the attack on TDSB.
