Pinal County schools affected by ransomware attack
MARICOPA, Ariz. - Employees of several school districts in Pinal County may not be getting paid Friday, and this could be the result of a cyberattack.
"It has come to our attention that the Pinal County School Office Data Processing Consortium was the victim of a Ransomware attack this weekend," read an email from Jill Broussard, the Pinal County Superintendent of Schools.
It is believed that no sensitive data was compromised, but as a precautionary measure, electronic fund transfers or direct deposits were temporarily halted, according to the email.
Emails obtained from the Maricopa Unified School District stated that paycheck distribution could be delayed if Pinal County was unable to restore the system needed to process the checks.
The system has since been restored, but teachers are still waiting for their paycheck distributions.
The county initially informed workers earlier this week about potential issues with direct deposit due to a data loss incident at the Pinal County Schools Office.
Staff members were told that paper checks would be issued this week. However, on Thursday, the Maricopa Unified School District (MUSD) notified employees that the distribution of paper checks might be delayed.
"We recognize the urgency of this matter and are doing everything possible to ensure that paychecks are distributed as soon as possible," wrote Dr. Tracey Lopeman, superintendent for MUSD.
On Friday, the Pinal County School Superintendent's Office confirmed that payroll processing was impacted by the attack but said checks would be printed for the following school districts: Apache Junction, Casa Grande High School, Combs, Coolidge, Florence, Maricopa, Mary C. O'Brien, Oracle, Picacho, Sacaton, Santa Cruz, Stanfield, Superior, and Toltec.
"We will send a voicemail a text message and an email message asking them to report to our district office to pick up their paycheck from x time to x time as soon as we have those checks in our hand we will know exactly what window to provide," Lopeman said.
FOX 10 has contacted the Maricopa Unified School District and is actively seeking more information regarding other districts that may be affected by this situation.
"I am sorry for that stress that has been caused by this situation, and I am so hopeful that this gets repaired and that our employees get paid so that they can go back to their normal lives," Lopeman said.
Teachers left frustrated and concerned
Teachers get paper checks after ransomware attack
Its pay day, but it almost wasnt for employees at several school districts in Pinal County, who are still trying to get their hands on paychecks. Its because of a ransomware cyber attack, which is bringing everything to a standstill. FOX 10s Stephanie Bennett reports.
Teachers were left wondering, waiting and frustrated that they may not be able to pay their bills this week.
"Just uncertainty of a lot of people live very close to the margin, anyway, there's not a lot of extra space," Talitha Martin said. "The first of the month is coming up – how does that look? Do we pay bills today, wait to see how next week rolls around – that type of stuff, so yeah, there's a lot of concern. I think it's panic and uncertainty on one hand, just kind of waiting to see how it plays out."
Maricopa Unified statement
MUSD released the following statement on Friday:
On Tuesday, MUSD was informed of a cyber security breach impacting the Pinal County Schools Office and disrupting the systems used for payroll processing.
Wednesday, September 27: District staff implemented systems necessary to resubmit payroll data Pinal County failed to save and prepared to issue paper paychecks in case the systems were not restored in enough time to issue paychecks through direct deposit.
Thursday, September 28: MUSD staff submitted to the county data for payroll processing. That afternoon, the district learned that the direct deposit function could not be used to deliver paychecks to employees. The District informed its staff they would need to report to MUSD District Office to pick up paper paychecks instead of being paid through direct deposit.
Later that evening, the County indicated that no progress had been made toward restoring the systems necessary to process payroll in any form.
At approximately 8:00 p.m., District administration informed employees that payroll systems at the County were not restored and payroll would be delayed. The County provided a letter stating "Paychecks will be distributed from your school district office as soon as they have been processed. We anticipate that to be on Friday, September 29 if the system has been restored and paychecks can be printed."
We recognize that this situation causes unimaginable hardship for our staff. MUSD has done everything within our power to ensure that employees would be paid on schedule, including resubmitting data that was not saved by the County. At this point, the resolution depends on the restoration of Pinal County's systems."
Pinal County statement
On Sunday, the Pinal County School Office Data Processing Service Consortium was the victim of a ransomware attack. Since then, Pinal County School Superintendent's Office staff have been working around the clock to restore access for school districts.
Unfortunately, payroll processing has been impacted for school districts that had not processed payroll prior to last weekend's attack.
To ensure employees are paid as promptly as possible, the School Superintendent's Office is today printing checks for the 4514 impacted staff who work in the following school districts: Apache Junction, Casa Grande High School, Combs, Coolidge, Florence, Maricopa, Mary C. O'Brien, Oracle, Picacho, Sacaton, Santa Cruz, Stanfield, Superior, and Toltec.
Employees of these school districts should await instruction from their school district on when checks are available for collection.
The School Superintendent's Office recognizes the difficulty this will cause employees of our school districts, and wholeheartedly apologizes for the inconvenience resulting from this unfortunate situation.
The Office is working with the authorities, including Homeland Security and the FBI, to investigate this incident thoroughly and ensure that additional safeguards are put in place. This isolated system is not connected to the Pinal County Government IT Network, and so no other Pinal County systems have been impacted.