The Florida Department of Law Enforcement doesn’t know who caused the cyber attack that disrupted school testing earlier this year. Nor does it know why.
More than 29,000 IP addresses were used to attack the vendor that created the Florida Standards Assessment.
During the Spring testing window, districts across the state reported outages and difficulty logging on to the test. According to the Tampa Bay Times, computer security experts say such attacks are becoming more common, and can be done relatively easily.
The FDLE’s report says many of the computers used in the attack were based in the United States, but some came from outside of the country.
"The flood of these incoming messages or connections blocked legitimate traffic (test takers) from accessing the server and the test or slowed these connections to the point of impacting test delivery," the agency said. "In attacks like this, the owners of compromised computers or users on the compromised networks often have no knowledge that their technology has been utilized to facilitate a denial of service."
In a statement, Florida Education Commissioner Pam Stewart says she’s pleased no student information was accessed and the content of the test wasn’t compromised.
“I am incredibly grateful to Commissioner Swearingen and his team of investigators at the Florida Department of Law Enforcement for their prompt response to the cyber-attack that affected so many of our state’s students during statewide testing this spring," Stewart said in a statement released by the Florida Department of Education. "I am pleased that the additional safeguards were effective, and we will continue working with AIR to ensure they have all of the necessary protections to provide for a smooth testing experience this year.”
