Baltimore County schools partially at fault for 2020 cyberattack, Maryland’s inspector general for education finds

Maryland’s inspector general for education says the Baltimore County school system failed to provide adequate security for its computer network servers, despite several warnings from the state in the years preceding a devastating ransomware attack in 2020. The investigative report published Monday places the school system partially at fault for the hack that disrupted school operations days before the Thanksgiving holiday in 2020, when all instruction and school board meetings were taking place online due to the coronavirus pandemic. The report offers new details about the cause of the attack, the total cost of recovery and actions taken by the Baltimore County school system prior to the incident.