Berta said the district currently is seeking outside technological assistance to halt the attacks and prevent further complications.
He said numerous parents with information technology experience, whose children attend Valparaiso schools, also have volunteered to help.
“The primary job right now is trying to put up a defense system so this outside hacking cannot occur,” Berta said.
He said the school district also has been in touch with the Valparaiso Police Department, and will be getting touch with the Federal Bureau of Investigation, to help catch the hackers and seek criminal charges against them.
More importantly, however, is getting the system back up and running so parents can be assured remote students are once again learning alongside their in-classroom peers, Berta said.
“We’ve had parents asking, ‘What’s going on? Why is it that my child is sitting at the computer and all of a sudden there’s nothing there,'” Berta said.
“I think parents are frustrated more than anything else. They’re expecting to have instruction fluid from the school and because of what I’m describing that’s just not happening. So there’s just a lot of frustration. Parents are frustrated, students are frustrated, teachers are frustrated, we’re frustrated.”
Berta said the district recently sent information about the hack to parents to let them know what’s happening, along with the efforts that are going into combating the attack on the school’s technology systems.