Who: Lynn Public Schools

When: 21 Mar 2019

# of records involved: undetermined

What happened: A widespread computer virus has shut down the internet in the Lynn Public School System in Massachusetts.

How did it happen: The administration currently has no idea where or how the virus started. Everything is connected to the internet. Once they realized what happened the idea became to try and control the issue.

Outcome: The Information Technology department responded and are diligently working to come up with a resolution. Out of an abundance of caution, once we realized the threat and how big it was, we shut down the whole computer system. The IT department’s priority is to resolve the virus before finding out where it began. UPDATE: Internet service in Lynn Public Schools is back up after a widespread virus shut it down for nearly three weeks. Teachers and LPS faculty were advised to not use personal devices on the school network and be careful about opening email attachments from unfamiliar senders. Going forward, daily functions on school computers are a go, but the system does not have the bandwidth to accommodate streaming videos just yet.