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the Highline School District shutdown
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continues a likely Cyber attack forcing
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the closure of classes Tuesday as well
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and this comes in the heels of hackers
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also taking down the Seattle library
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system and throwing SeaTac into chaos
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Fox 13's Lauren Donovan is detailing how
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classes are being cancelled just four
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days after the school year
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began families were first notified on
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Sunday but this is all happen so fast
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Highland High School wants to make sure
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nobody missed the message that's why
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they posted these signs that read no
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school today is this just a one-off here
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in the Highline School District or is
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this a bigger problem districts across
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Washington State are starting to
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experience more so schools tend to have
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a lot more information than we think
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about there's a lot of Rich information
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that bad guys can mine we've seen it
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happen before Edmonds bethl Northshore 2
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cyber security expert Cory KN Riner says
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the digital dependence of K through 12
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creates a clear vulnerability for
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districts like Highline Monday classes
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were canceled across campuses due to a
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possible cyber threat and if you think
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about covid all of the schools had to
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get ready for remote work today students
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take home laptops and access textbooks
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online they really are kind of a a easy
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Target in the past the reason K through
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12 wasn't targeted much is they don't
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have huge budgets but nowadays you can
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get anywhere from 50,000 to a million in
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past School ransomware attacks and just
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this year there's been a 70% increase in
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ransomware targeting K through 12
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schools but I think one of the most
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common things is the data you have there
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you might think that's crazy right these
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are kids why you they don't have credit
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scores that's a good thing for these
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thread actors within time you have these
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new identities that you can open
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accounts that these students may not
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realize was opened until 10 years later
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they can also use schools as some kind
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of impostor another reason they target
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schools is that doedu email is pretty
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valuable think about you as a parent
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getting a a email from a edu address it
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feels official it feels from the school
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Cory says there's a reason Highline has
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been keeping things vague in a Facebook
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post writing quote they have detected
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unauthorized activity on our technology
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system when you're in the investigation
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period you actually have to keep quiet
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sometimes even the authorities don't
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want to let any information out about
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the threat actor as they're trying to
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learn about them if data is compromised
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the Highline school district is
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obligated by law to share the impact of
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the breach with all impacted parties
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it's sometimes hard to get the root
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cause out of the companies that have
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been breached so one thing for the
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people that go to the school district I
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would not panic yet there's no
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indication that your data is out the
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district says they've got a third party
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stepping in to help them navigate this
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they've also reached out to state and
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federal officials for help reporting in
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buan Lauren Donovan Fox 13 News
