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Welcome back. We have a First Alert
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update for parents and staff in
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Lexington Richland School District 5.
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The district confirming tonight it cyber
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attack is ongoing. We first brought you
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this story on Thursday and so far it's
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impacted employee retention bonuses and
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internet outages. The district telling
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WIS this incident began back on June
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3rd. Tonight, the district's school
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board was briefed with the latest
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updates on this incident. Our Naomi Popo
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is at that meeting and she shares with
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both family and school staff what
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families and school staff need to know.
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Threat actors who are trying to pressure
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us didn't see a sweat. They say it stood
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tall and to move forward. The Lexington
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Richland 5 school district says it's a
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victim of malicious actors outside the
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district's environment that's led to a
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recent data security incident. But on
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June 3rd, 2025, we detected unusual
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network activity that is impacting
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certain aspects of our operations.
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Operations such as employee retention
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bonuses not being administered on time
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and internet outages. As it stands, the
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district says there isn't enough
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evidence of a data breach, but that it's
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possible some files, which the district
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did not specify, will not be restored.
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If any sensitive data was impacted in
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this data security incident, the
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district will follow with expert
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forensic and legal recommendations to
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address this issue. At this time, Akil
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Ross, superintendent for LR5, says the
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district has no reason to believe
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sensitive data is being misused. He says
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the district has taken steps to prevent
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this from happening again by deploying
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new detection and threat software and
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that they are working closely with
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investigators as the issues continue.
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Our technology team has been working
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diligently with law enforcement and
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thirdparty specialists to investigate
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the full nature and scope of the
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incident and securely restore files and
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systems as expeditially as possible.
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Superintendent Ross says the district
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will be able to complete payroll for its
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upcoming payday on June 15th, less than
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a week away, and that the security
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incident is still ongoing. Share without
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oversharing that the threat actors are
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watching. uh they are looking for the
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answers to the same questions that a lot
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of us have. And so we're putting our
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responses into two categories. A
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category of need to know in order to
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protect School District 5 and its assets
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and a category of like to know to to be
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informed of what's going on because the
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threat actors are watching. We are not
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going to share how thick our walls are
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because that just tells them what size
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This evening, WIS asked the district how
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much money it spent while responding to
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this cyber security incident and whether
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it expects additional funds will be
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needed as it works through its
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restoration. We will keep you updated
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with any and all information that we
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learn both on air and online at
