Freehold Township, NJ schools closed by ‘cybersecurity incident’

💻 UPDATE: Is there school tomorrow in Freehold Township?

FREEHOLD TOWNSHIP — Parents were sent scrambling Sunday night when a Monmouth County school district unexpectedly canceled classes for Monday.

Freehold Township School District Superintendent Neal Dickstein said in a message to to school community said "technical issues to a cybersecurity incident in our network environment" was the reason for the sudden cancellation.  He did not disclose specifically how  the incident impedes operations in the district's eight schools.

The district has brought in an outside IT consultant to “assess, contain, remediate and fully restore operation,” according to Dickstein.  The superintendent on Sunday night did not respond to New Jersey 101.5's request for more information.

Freehold Township High School, which is part of the Freehold Regional High School School District, is open as usual.

Other organizations hit by cyber attacks

The Egg Harbor Township School District was opening on a two hour delay due to “major electrical and mechanical issues” affecting all schools but did not disclose details.

New Jersey schools, hospitals and businesses have all been affected by cyberattacks over the past year.

💻Capital Health, with locations in New Jersey and Pennsylvania, and Hackensack Meridian Health's Pascack Valley Medical Center in Westwood and Mountainside Medical Center in Montclair were targeted by cyber attacks in December that affected operations for a time.

💻Borgota in Atlantic City was part of a cyberattack on all its facilities nationwide in September that left it unable to take reservations and rendered electronic keycards inoperable

💻 The Camden County Prosecutor's Office and Camden County Police Department were hit by simultaneous cyberattacks in March that initially locked up access to criminal investigative files and day-to-day internal administration functions.

The Bucks County, Pennsylvania county emergency communications system's computer-aided dispatch (CAD) system was attacked Jan. 21 and left dispatchers using pen-and-paper to take down emergency from 911 calls. County officials have identified the ransomware demand as coming from a group called "Akira."

The responsible groups in New Jersey attacks have not been disclosed.

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