Cyberattacks Target Two Maine School Districts Over Weekend
Two Maine public school districts faced separate cybersecurity breaches over the weekend, prompting swift responses from officials.
In South Portland, the school department identified a network breach on Sunday traced to an IP address in Bulgaria, according to Andy Wallace, the district’s director of technology. The attack, detected by an external cybersecurity monitoring service, triggered an immediate shutdown of the district’s internet and network. Wallace said the breach did not appear to compromise student or staff data. Systems were restored in time for Monday classes. “We believe it was a random attack and not targeted at us specifically,” Wallace said, crediting the district’s state-funded cybersecurity software for mitigating the incident.
Separately, Maine School Administrative District 51 (MSAD 51), headquartered in Cumberland Center, reported a phishing scam from a hacked student email account. Superintendent Jeff Porter said the compromised account was used to send fraudulent emails to approximately 1,400 district recipients, soliciting personal information under the guise of a remote job offer. The incident is under investigation by the Cumberland Police Department. Porter emphasized that the phishing attempt, believed to involve a foreign actor, did not result in broader system access or data breaches.
Both districts affirmed the incidents were unrelated, underscoring broader concerns about vulnerabilities in public school networks. Dr. Lori Sussman, a University of Southern Maine cybersecurity expert, noted that schools often operate with limited budgets for advanced cybersecurity measures, making them frequent targets for opportunistic attacks.