WHEELING, W.Va. (AP) - Authorities are investigating a cyberattack that briefly disrupted a state public education network.
The denial-of-service attack caused a 20-minute disruption of WVNET’s computing services last week. But there was no attempt to steal information, Sterling Beane, the Department of Education’s chief technology officer, told media outlets.
Denial-of-service attacks flood sites with traffic, making them temporarily unreachable.
“They were just trying to be disruptive, and not trying to steal information,” he said. “They were trying to use up all the bandwidth with nuisance traffic.”
The attack was traced to a computer lab at Wheeling Park High School, Ohio County school board President Shane Mallett told media outlets.
Beane said information technology officers found the attack’s source by tracking its Internet protocol address. They then blocked the attack and restored service.
“We don’t know if this was a student who initiated the attack, or what level of involvement they may have had,” Beane said.
He said high technological knowledge is not needed to launch such attacks, which use a virus known as a “botnet.” He said a person can hire someone else to perform the attack.
“Folks are trying to profit from launching, and there are ’botnet for hire’ ads,” he said. “You pay them money, and they launch an attack on the network by the information they are provided.”
Ohio County school officials are investigating the attack, with help from the Ohio County Sheriff’s Department and the Ohio County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office, Ohio County Schools Superintendent Dianna Vargo said.
“It will be dealt with in a swift manner,” Mallett said. “It is an active criminal investigation. If its deemed to be criminal then you know there is everything from suspension to expulsion is available to the superintendent to issue that type of punishment to the student.”
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Information from: The Intelligencer, https://www.theintelligencer.net
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