SD&G – Schools in the Upper Canada District School Board (UCDSB) are still in the process of recovering from a cyber-attack that was detected on Jan. 5, 2025, prior to the return to class of students from the Christmas break.
In an email to parents dated Jan. 5, parents and guardians were advised that the entire UCDSB was experiencing a significant network disruption that would impact all the schools in the board on January 6. While the schools would open as scheduled, there was no access to the internet.
Parents and guardians were advised that if their child would be away from school or they needed to contact their child’s school, they would need to call the school directly.
The following day, the board advised that they were able to confirm that the incident was due to a cyber-attack, that the police had been contacted and that the board was working with experts to assess the impact and restore services.
They added that at that time, there was no indication that any personal data has been compromised.
As of Jan. 8, the schools were still experiencing disruptions to services and that work was ongoing to safely restore access and assess the impact of this cyber incident.
As of Jan. 10, work was continuing around-the-clock to restore access to the network and daily digital tools. The board continued to work closely with cybersecurity experts in the recovery efforts and advised that they would continue to do so for as long as necessary. Some services were being brought back online.
National news networks were reporting that between Dec. 22 and 28, 2024 schools in six provinces and across the US experienced a “cyber incident” which targeted PowerSchool, a third-party application that is also used to store some school-based staff information.
Officials in Ontario, Alberta, Newfoundland, Labrador and Nova Scotia were working with PowerSchool to try and determine the extent of the breach.
The UCDSB reported that their incident appears to be separate from the one PowerSchool is experiencing, and that at the present time they have not received notice from PowerSchool to indicate that they were impacted by the PowerSchool breach.
Terry Tinkess is a professional photographer, educator and journalist. He has been making a living with a camera and keyboard since 1999 and has been featured in such publications as The Ottawa Citizen, Cornwall Standard Freeholder, The Globe and Mail, The Miami Herald, Ottawa Construction News, The Ontario Construction Report, Ontario Home Builder Magazine, Reed Construction Data, Canadian Potato Business and most recently, The Record and Eastern Ontario AgriNews. Terry lives in Ingleside, Ontario with his wife Brenda, Mia the anxious Pittie and cats Wally and Chubbers.
