Cyberattack at Cedar Rapids Schools shuts down summer programming for the week

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (KCRG) - Hundreds of families in the Cedar Rapids school district no longer have summer programming this week due to a cyberattack. The district has temporarily closed all of its facilities. The only thing still happening this week are high school baseball and softball games, which are outdoors.

The district sent a statement on the incident over the 4th of July holiday. District leaders did not share any additional information on Tuesday. It’s still unclear what system was the target of the cyberattack or what information the attacker may have had access to.

Dan Tuuri teaches cybersecurity classes at DeltaV Code School in Cedar Rapids. He says one security breach in a system can give an attacker access to a whole network.

”When we look at the modern world, if I can effect your cybersecurity, I can take out your business,” he explained.

Samantha Perez sends her youngest son to Champions, the childcare provider that operates in Cedar Rapids school buildings. While the district and Champions both sent a notice out to families on Monday, Perez says she and several others did not know they were without childcare for the week until they showed up to drop off their kids Tuesday morning.

”A teacher was standing outside being nice to let the parents know that there was no school for this week,” Perez explained.

Champions serves more than 300 families.

Nearly 700 students attend Kids on Course University in the summer, which is also cancelled. Many of them rely on it for meals not only during the work week but on weekends.

The sudden closures are leaving families to adjust on short notice.

“I did have to reschedule an appointment and move some things around,” Perez said.

While it’s inconvenient, Tuuri says it’s important cybersecurity issues are handled in full.

”What we’re seeing now with the attack in our community is we’re seeing a real pause of let’s make sure we go through every system and that’s a really responsible action to take because we don’t know how deep an attack has gone in any setting,” said Tuuri.

It’s an issue the district is hoping to take care of quickly with plans to resume programming next week.

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