Cyber attack affects thousands of CNY students

SYRACUSE, NY — As kids sat down to take their state assessment tests this week, a cyber troublemaker was up to no good.

The attack affected the OCM BOCES network. It disrupted an estimated 25,000-grade school students during their ELA assessment test.

Jody Manning, the OCM BOCES district superintendent said whoever attacked the network simply wanted to cause problems.

"Several of our districts this year were putting it on the computer-based testing. So, students were on devices taking this test. And this was a malicious attack to interfere with those tests," Manning said.

The attack shut down the network intermittently, forcing some districts to reschedule the test.

Manning said he feels bad for the students and the districts handled the disruption well.

"Several of our districts were fantastic. Great leadership, kept their composure, that became contagious to the students," Manning said.

The IT department that oversees the network quickly stepped in. Technicians worked with Internet providers to stabilize the connection so testing could continue.

The security network also helped to soften the impact, preventing data from being stolen.

"Those types of systems and that type of hardware that is put in place to prevent large-scale attacks," Pam Mazzaferro, chief technology officer, Central New York Regional Information Center.

IT security administrators said attacks similar to this are part of testing in the computer age, especially when more and more districts switch from pencil and paper.

"It's something goes with the technology field. We have technicians in-house. We have our providers that constantly are working on these types of issues, Mazzaferro said.

OCM BOCES administrators said it still unclear who attacked them.

However, they are working with authorities as it is investigated.