Kingfisher Public Schools fell prey to a ransomware attack over the weekend, which disrupted some services into the school week.

However, said Superintendent Andy Evans, no sensitive information was breached by the attackers.

A ransomware attack occurs when someone infiltrates a system or network, then encrypts the victim’s data before demanding a ransom payment in exchange for the key to decrypt the data and regain access.

Not long ago, this event could have been a bigger disaster for KPS, said Evans.

However, last November the district moved a lot of its sensitive information such as student, employee and business data - to off-site servers, or “clouds.”

The ransomware attack affected things such as student and teacher computers, student and staff badges used to enter school buildings and intercom systems, among others.

The district’s IT staff, which includes Heath Price and Teresa Fletcher, began working quickly along with Jasper Merritt, an IT specialist with whom the district has contracted for several years.

They were able to discover the “hole” the attackers were able to use to penetrate the district’s system.

“It was a brute force attack,” said Superintendent Andy Evans. “The hackers did this in Woodward and Okeene earlier this semester. They used a password generator to mimic all of our passwords focused on our school mascot. They found a password that was a combination of our mascots.”

Some of the services affected were operational before students returned to school on Monday. Others - such as WiFi, student Chromebooks and some teacher computers - were able to be used by Tuesday.

Evans said the district also worked with the OSBI and FBI during the process.

Also, he said, the district is changing its password protocol to make this kind of attack more difficult.

“We are very fortunate that we have our major data in the cloud,” Evans added.

He also credited his IT staff for its swift work.

“Heath and Teresa did an excellent job in taking care of this issue,” Evans said. “Within four hours of discovery, they were closing in on the issue.”