Systems including internet and phone lines at public schools in Burnaby have been out of service since Monday due to what the school district is describing as a “cyber incident.” A Tuesday statement on the district’s website says staff are “working diligently to contain the incident and restore normal operations as soon as possible.” “While these impacts are inconvenient, staff are working hard across Burnaby Schools to ensure there is no disruption to student learning,” it reads. An email sent to parents asks them to report student absences using the general school email address while the phone lines are down. “The network outage that is causing the issue is ongoing across the Burnaby School District,” it reads. “Our IT team is working with vendors to restore services as quickly as possible.” The district’s statement does not describe the nature of the cyber incident. When asked if the problem has compromised the personal information of any students, parents or staff, the district wrote in a statement, “At this stage, we are working to determine the nature and scope of the incident. As the investigation is ongoing, we will provide further updates when we are able to do so.”
