We deeply appreciate the support we have received from multiple agencies and organizations.  Our IT Department reacted quickly yesterday morning. Individuals were deployed from Microelectronic Center of North Carolina (MCNC) and the NCLGISA Strike Team. NCLGISA is an association of the North Carolina local government information technology professionals. Both groups have extensive experience in addressing ransomware attacks. The deployed support members worked into the evening with members of our IT staff. This morning the National Guard
arrived onsite. The National Guard will focus on forensic work.

At 10:00 a.m. this morning, we participated in another multiagency meeting. In a short amount of time, we have learned a lot.

• Our financial and payroll information was not impacted. We anticipate being able to pay
  our employees on time. Please bear with us if there are glitches. Members of the Finance
  Department are working from a remote location because our normal Internet and server
  support is missing. With that said, we expect the end-of-month payroll to occur as
  scheduled. We will not be able to put paystubs on the employee portal at this time.
• Our third-party data storage was not impacted. PowerSchool (student data), Orbit, Google
  email, other Google applications, Remind, and any other third-party data is secure.
• Chromebooks were not individually impacted. However, Chromebooks cannot be used at
  this time because they automatically connect to the network and the network is down.
• Staff computers are not safe to use at this time.
• Personal computers (not associated with Haywood County Schools) were not impacted.
• Google email can be used from a personal device.

Our Next steps:

• We will work to bring on-site communication tools online beginning with telephones.
• Reconnect student devices to the network for instructional purposes.
• Continue assessing staff computer status and remedy as appropriate.
• Data regarding the ransomware attack will be shared with the FBI.

Our delay in restarting remote instruction is the uncertainty about the use of staff computers. We will know more when the forensic work is complete.

We apologize for being unable to communicate as effectively as normal. Servers, Internet, and telephone services are still down in the school system. We will send another update at the end of the day.

Contact: Dr. Bill Nolte, Superintendent