An unknown person was able to gain access to the Okanagan Skaha School District systems during a recent cyberattack, but it is not yet known if any files were accessed or taken.

On Feb. 13, school district staff noticed some unusual activity in their information systems. The systems were taken offline to minimize the impact of the incident.

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However, in a Feb. 20 letter sent to parents and students, the school district said some information belonging to students may be at risk.

The school district is urging parents and students to take precautions to protect themselves as this attack continues.

Precautions include not responding to unusual emails or text messages from the school district, not responding to unsolicited requests for personal or financial information, monitoring financial and other accounts for unusual activity and changing passwords to personal accounts accessed from school district systems.

鈥淧lease be assured that we take our role in safeguarding your personal information seriously,鈥� the letter to parents read. 鈥淲e are doing everything we can to rectify this situation and have engaged support from cyber security experts to support our investigation and the restoration of our systems. This matter has also been reported to law enforcement and to the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner.鈥�

The school district is not the only organization to have experienced a cyberattack.

In 2020, there was an attempt to place ransomware on the Regional District of Okanagan-Similkameen鈥檚 systems. In early 2023, Okanagan College was hit with a cyberattack.

A report released in late October, 2023 said more than half of small and medium sized businesses in the province had been hit with cyberattacks.