PHILIPPI, W.Va. — A phishing e-mail which was inadvertently open may have been the culprit which forced a shutdown of all on-line systems in the Barbour County School system Wednesday.
“I think our tech people did a great job of identifying some issue early and then we shut this thing down before it could affect anything,” said Superintendent Eddie Vincent.
As a precaution, the entire county school system internet service was shut off. I-T staff continued to probe the issue and were trying to isolate any potential spread which could impact the system before starting it back up. Vincent said things like this are what the system should be prepared for at all times.
“I’ve been telling people this. I’m in schools all week and I’ve seen so many good things happening teaching-wise,” he explained. “This is going to sound weird, but it’s refreshing to see going back to teaching and learning without technology sometimes.”
Vincent added he’s aware of some school systems who deliberately shut off the internet some days. The idea of non-technology days in the classroom are to help teachers and students remember what it’s like to operate the way traditional teaching and learning were done before we had the advanced technology of today. Vincent said he liked the idea.
As of Wednesday afternoon, the county school system was awaiting the all-clear to turn the system back on.