Fort Worth school district pays $337K for cybersecurity services after malware attack
The Fort Worth Independent School District has approved a $242,000 purchase of additional cybersecurity services to strengthen the district’s network after a malware attack in March.
At its Tuesday night meeting, the school board voted unanimously to pay $242,750 to the firm MaeTech to strengthen the district’s systems. Fort Worth ISD previously hired the cybersecurity project management firm to oversee the services.
The board also approved invoices for $94,400 paid to the same company between June and September for services related to recovery from the cyberattack.
In March, the FWISD became the latest victim of a ransomware attack in which hackers take over a district’s systems and hold the information for ransom. Hundreds of other school districts have been victim to similar attacks; Trinity Metro was also the victim of a ransomware attack in July.
FWISD spokesman Clint Bond said in March that the district had no intention to pay the ransom and that no student or employee personal or financial information was known to be compromised. Other records and programs that the district lost access to had to be recovered or recreated. School officials have not commented on who was responsible for the attack.
On Sept. 3, Bond said the district has made “great strides at recovering from the attack” and while the district still has work to do, he said the systems were improved sufficiently to allow school officials to kick off virtual learning.
Bond said the district is “not at a point where we want to discuss what such a recovery entails.”
The district did face some technical issues on the first day of online learning, but the issues were unrelated to the malware attack. Dallas ISD and Houston ISD also had technical problems on that day due a problem with the districts’ shared online vendor.
The new services approved by the board will allow the project manager to oversee four areas to strengthen the district’s security systems through December: a cybersecurity program, business continuity and disaster recovery in the event of an attack, extension of protective software to all district devices, and finding an experienced chief information officer to review the district’s technology.
According to documents included in the school board’s agenda, the district’s insurance company covered expenses that were incurred through May, but the district determined the services should be continued for several more months.
This story was originally published September 24, 2020 at 5:00 AM with the headline "Fort Worth school district pays $337K for cybersecurity services after malware attack."
