Richmond Public Schools in Virginia Offline for a Fourth Day After Cyberattack: Classes Continue as District Pledges Free Credit Monitoring
Richmond Public Schools (RPS) in Richmond, Virginia, remained offline for a fourth day on October 24 after taking its divisionwide internet access down following a cybersecurity incident on October 21. The district's homepage still carries its October 21 "Divisionwide Network Outage" notice, with no restoration announcement posted. RPS is one of the 100 largest school divisions in the United States, serving about 22,000 students across 53 campuses, with its central office at 301 N. 9th Street.
Superintendent Jason Kamras said in an October 21 statement that the division had "temporarily taken internet access offline," limiting phone and email service as well as access to online classroom tools and learning platforms. Schools remained open, student and staff safety was not affected, and teachers adjusted lessons as needed. Kamras said the division was working with outside cybersecurity experts and law enforcement to understand the full scope of the incident. According to The Richmonder, screens on employee devices displayed a message titled "Critical Alert: Data Breach and Encryption Notice" in which the sender claimed to have extracted data and encrypted files and demanded contact within 72 hours. The district has not confirmed that data was stolen; whether personal information was affected remains under investigation.
In an October 22 morning update, the district said front-office phones were back online across the division, outbound calls and 911 access were never affected, and the ParentSquare channel for urgent assistance was never impacted. That evening it confirmed that security cameras were fully operational with local recording uninterrupted. Kamras said anyone whose personal information was affected would be notified and offered free credit monitoring; the division later said it would offer free identity and credit monitoring to all students and staff, with details to follow.
During the outage, students and staff were told not to connect any devices to RPS networks, and schools shifted to a technology-free learning environment. The district's regular RPS Direct bulletin was still published on October 23, but no timetable for restoring the network has been announced.
Source: GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：Richmond Public Schools 学区总部（301 N. 9th Street）外景与校车。摄影：Packer1028，CC0，经 Wikimedia Commons。 / The Richmond Public Schools central office at 301 N. 9th Street, by Packer1028, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons.
