APS Superintendent Scott Elder will travel to White House for cybersecurity event

After a crippling cyberattack that closed schools for two days in early 2022, Albuquerque Public Schools’ own Superintendent Scott Elder will travel to the nation’s capital for a White House event on Monday afternoon aimed at raising awareness about the danger of such attacks on public school systems.

“We were able to restore our systems quickly when we were hit with a ransomware attack in January of 2022,” Elder said in a news release. “But cyberattacks are crippling, and we, as a nation, need to be doing everything possible to secure our infrastructure and fend off these attacks.”

The event will include White House, Department of Education, Department of Homeland Security and FBI officials. The latter agency was involved in APS’ response to its cyberattack last year.

APS said in its release that private companies will also announce free or low-cost cybersecurity resources they plan to make available to public schools.

In the wake of the attack, Elder called for a state and federal task force aimed at providing resources to prevent such attacks in the future.

In a written response to questions, Chief Information and Strategy Officer Richard Bowman said the district “(doesn’t) share the details of the measures protecting our network, but we have begun a comprehensive information security program.”

“We have also contracted with a third party to monitor and address threats that make it through our first layer of defenses,” he added. “We have also seen improved staff awareness and compliance with cybersecurity measures.”

Although APS said at the time no data was compromised, district officials said classes were canceled in mid-January 2022 because safety systems — including those used for taking attendance and for contacting families in emergency situations — were compromised.

No one was arrested in APS’ cyberattack, Bowman said.

On Friday, The Denver Post reported the Colorado Department of Education announced that in a cyberattack, thieves may have stolen the personal information of anyone who attended a public high school from 2004 to 2020 in Colorado, or attended a public college or university from 2007 to 2020 in the state.

The Colorado breach may also have included anyone licensed by the state as a teacher between 2010 and 2014.