Tenafly High School Falls Victim to Ransomware Attack

An unknown ransomware gang has attacked Tenafly High School. The school fell victim to a cyberattack on June 2, 2022, which shut down all school-related sites, including the Genesis portal, WebOutlook, and Google Drive, preventing students from accessing study materials and teachers from updating grades. It is unclear who initiated the attack.

According to Christine Corliss, District Webmaster and Communications Manager, “Students and families began to receive regular information and updates about the situation, its status, and access to systems as it became available via email, text, and the TPS App. Between June 2nd and June 13th, one to two messages per day were sent by the district administration.”

The school declined to disclose how much the attacker has demanded as ransom, although Corliss reported that “at this time, we believe we are only responsible for paying our $25,000 deductible.” A week after the attack occurred, students were able to recover their Google accounts with temporary passwords. According to Corliss, “servers and systems are restored although access and data reviews continue.”

By June 15th, all systems were accessible, including Google Workspace, email, and Genesis. While it’s unclear who the attacker is, Tenafly residents speculated that the ViceSociety ransomware gang is responsible.