Published on: February 1, 2024
Schools in one town in New Jersey closed on Monday following an announcement by the district of a cybersecurity incident. The assistant superintendent of the Freehold Township School District posted on social media that the district’s schools would be shut on Monday, citing “technical difficulties related to a cybersecurity event.”
“The Freehold Township Schools will be closed on Monday, 1/29/24 due to technical difficulties related to a cybersecurity event. We apologize for the inconvenience,” the superintendent’s post read.
The school district’s website also confirmed that schools would be closed on Monday, impacting around 3,500 students across eight schools in the district.
The superintendent sent an email to parents as well, assuring them that the district has “retained outside IT expert consultants who are working around the clock to assess, contain, remediate, and fully restore operations.”
The school didn’t disclose any further details on the incident, but students who spoke to local media said a software system called Genesis wasn’t working and that they were instructed to keep an eye on anything unusual on their Chromebook laptops.
“I just hope nothing else got out, nothing about the kids’ information, our information, because they have all our information,” one of the parents said.
Parents, who got the notice a little over 12 hours before school was supposed to start, were forced to find a way around their usual schedule.
“So luckily I was off today and had some plans with the kids, but I do have some empathy for people who have to make arrangements today,” one parent said.
“It’s terrible, the kids are at the loss of this, no one is winning and they really should stop it,” a Freehold Township parent argued.
All students returned to class on Tuesday. The school district has yet to inform parents about whether any of their kids’ information was compromised.
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