29-01-2025
How West Virginia schools prepare for potential cyberattacks
CLARKSBURG, (WBOY) — The cybersecurity incident that left many parents in Harrison County concerned last week is still under investigation, and although the county uses Schoology, a product created by PowerSchool, which was a recent target of a data security breach, Harrison County officials said that there's no evidence the two events are related.
In the days following the incidents, 12 News reached out to some other school districts across the state that use Schoology and other PowerSchool products and asked about their protocols to deal with and prevent potential cyberattacks.
Lewis County Schools Director of Technology Janet Sabatelli told 12 News that the school district was not affected by the PowerSchool data breach but that the school district is 'well-prepared to mitigate risks in the event of an attack.'
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Some of the strategies include regular security audits and updates, multi-factor authentication, and data backups and recovery. Other strategies include collaborations with cybersecurity professionals to monitor threats and keep the school district's systems secure.
The West Virginia State Board of Education also told 12 News that it has high-security measures to guard against cyberattacks and that it also provides guidance to counties for best practices to protect against these kinds of attacks.
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