By Geena Monahan — For the North Star Reporter
A systemwide internet outage that disrupted communication across North Attleborough Public Schools was caused by a cybersecurity incident involving unauthorized network activity, officials said.
School officials first alerted families Monday, March 30, that the district was experiencing widespread connectivity issues, warning that email access and some communication systems could be affected as networks went offline.
“Because our primary networks are down, our usual lines of communication may be impacted,” the district wrote in a message to families, advising parents to call schools directly, rather than rely on email.
In a follow-up message Wednesday, April 1, Superintendent John Antonucci said the disruption stemmed from unauthorized activity detected by internal monitoring systems.
Additional details provided to the North Star Reporter by Technology Director Kyle Kirshenbaum indicate the district first became aware of a breach the morning of Wednesday, March 25.
“We responded immediately by communicating with local, state and federal authorities and began to take steps to secure our network from any outside threat actors,” Kirshenbaum said.
Kirshenbaum said the breach itself did not directly impact the district’s network. However, a subsequent discovery late Friday, March 27, prompted officials to proactively shut down internet access districtwide as a precaution, which led to the widespread outage. Phone systems were not affected.
Officials said the district has since secured its network, implemented additional safeguards and is working with cybersecurity experts to conduct a full forensic analysis to determine the scope of the incident and whether any sensitive information was accessed. Individuals will be notified if any data is found to have been compromised.
“While we cannot share specific technical details for security reasons, we want our community to know that our internal safeguards and monitoring systems worked as intended,” Antonucci said in the message.
Kirshenbaum noted the district’s firewall and endpoint protection systems helped staff respond quickly and limit impact. He added that configurations will continue to be refined to align with current cybersecurity best practices.
Despite the disruption, teaching and learning continued across the district, with educators adapting lesson plans and working with limited access to technology.
“Their flexibility and professionalism ensured that classroom instruction continued with minimal disruption,” Antonucci said.
School officials said all network connectivity has since been restored and that they will continue to provide updates as more information becomes available.