Oakland Community School District 5 in eastern Illinois said a cyberattack discovered over the holiday break was contained and systems were restored before classes resumed, with no disruption and no ransom paid.
The district said there was no impact to students or staff, but it did not say whether any services would have been affected if the attack had occurred while classes were in session.
In a statement published Jan. 6 by MyRadioLink, Superintendent Nathan Pugh said the district detected unauthorized access during the break and brought in outside cybersecurity experts to secure and recover systems. The district did not respond Wednesday to an email seeking additional details.
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As of Wednesday, Jan. 7, 2026, the district’s website did not include a post about the incident on its news page, where the most recent items were dated Nov. 19, 2025, or on its live feed, which carried routine school updates and a spring-semester return post. The district also had not mentioned the incident on its official social media accounts.
Illinois law can require notification when personal or student data is compromised, but the district did not say whether any reportable data breach occurred.
Pugh said the attackers demanded payment, but the district did not pay and recovered using backups. He said the district is in communication with law enforcement. The district did not describe the malware used or say whether files were encrypted. No ransomware group has publicly claimed responsibility in public postings reviewed by DysruptionHub.
While the investigation continues, Pugh said the district does not believe sensitive student data was affected and does not believe its human resources or payroll systems were impacted.
Oakland Community School District 5 is a rural PK-12 district in Coles County with two schools and about 247 students, according to federal education data.
The incident follows other recent school cyber disruptions in Illinois, including Zion Elementary District 6’s multi-day closure in early December 2025 after the district reported a cybersecurity incident that could have affected files and servers.
