Tucson Unified School District will hold a media briefing at 4:30 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 2, about an incident early Monday morning that it is for the first time confirming was a cyber attack.
Previously, the district referred to it only as a cybersecurity or data security incident.
In the briefing, to be held virtually, TUSD Superintendent Gabriel Trujillo is scheduled to give an update on the attack, which affected some of the internet and network services for Tucson's largest school district.
On Tuesday night district leadership issued a statement saying, "We appreciate the patience of our community as we take essential steps to secure our network and ensure confidential information remains safe."
It did not directly answer questions about whether any personal information about the districtβs more than 42,000 students and 7,000-plus employees was compromised.
TUSD officials have declined to answer any questions about the security incident, including the kind of data stored in the districtβs network services.
Trujillo has cited direction from lawyers as the reason for not commenting further as the investigation continues.
Margaret Chaney, president of the Tucson Education Association, confirmed early Tuesday afternoon that the network is still down. She said TUSD has been working to provide hot spots to schools but not everyone has one yet.
Tucson.com and the Arizona Daily Star will update this breaking news story.
Fox News recently offered readers a guide to internet security and different forms of cyberattacks. Malware is an often-used abbreviation for malicious software, or software developed with malicious intent.
