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Rockford Public Schools Hacked! Ransom Notes Found: Latest Updates
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Rockford Public Schools remained open
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today despite being hacked overnight
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news's Megan bunchman joining us now in
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studio with what we know about this
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Megan Brian Sue School staffers found
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several Ransom notes printed out in
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specifically the district's media
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centers this morning that indicated that
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they had been hacked I heard that they
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were asking for money it was a busy day
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at Rockford schools as students and
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parents alike were a buzz talking about
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the hack we received a message on some
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random printers throughout the district
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that said that somebody had access to
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our Network and and so they were going
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to hold it for ransom the FBI is
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investigating the ransomware attack but
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superintendent Steve Matthews says
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because the district's locks and
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security boxes are still working school
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would continue as usual we're pretty
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confident that this is not a local event
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that probably came from overseas so we
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don't think there's any safety
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compromise today so we're in school but
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for Carla marsman and her granddaughter
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the hack itself was upsetting enough to
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leave school early I got a call that the
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internet was hacked and um she asked me
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to pick her up The District's phone and
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email systems were shut down to mitigate
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future data breaches we're concerned
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that they might be able to access uh
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information on on our books for example
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or information on our uh you know
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student uh database as classroom studies
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went old school Wednesday shutting down
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computers and teaching classes with
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books pen and paper the cell networks uh
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work but Wi-Fi uh is shut down so we're
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trying to assess uh you know where the
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vulnerability was and then we'll uh
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figure out what next steps we need to
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take as of this afternoon the hackers
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have yet to State how much money they
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are asking for to repair the damage and
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news a did obtain a copy of that Ransom
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note in summary it said that the attack
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was not politically motivated and after
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this District paid the hackers they
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would send over software to restore the
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system the FBI continues its
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investigation Brian
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