Malware Took Out Devices at Three North Carolina Schools
Right before school was scheduled to be released for winter break, malware completely took over three of Rockingham County’s school systems. The virus originated in Bethany Elementary, Western Rockingham Middle School, and the district’s Central Office. It is believed no other schools were impacted. However, of the three schools that were infected, significant damages were done. All of the students and teachers were told to leave their devices at the school during the winter break.
The school board approved for 10 IT professionals to come in and fix the issues while the students and staff were gone. During that time, 20 different servers were fixed, costing $314,000. Unfortunately, that did not fix all of the problems. The malware infection could cost up to another $834,000 to replace infected devices. According to WFMY News 2 the school has approximately 200 replacement devices for school staff to use. Although, most teachers will remain without computers until early February.
In the meantime, school officials are encouraging all students and staff to check their personal devices that they may have connected to school computers while the infection was still in the system.
