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Waterloo police now investigating cyberattack at public school board

The investigation into the cyberattack at the Waterloo Regional District School Board is finally in the hands of local law enforcement. Jonathan Hayward/The Canadian Press

The investigation into the cyberattack at the Waterloo Region District School Board is finally in the hands of local law enforcement.

In July, the school board announced that it had discovered that it had been hacked on July 10. A spokesperson for the Waterloo Regional Police confirmed that they began to investigate the attack on Tuesday.

“I can confirm WRPS commenced an investigation on Tuesday into the cyber security incident at WRDSB after recently receiving a report,” WRPS Const. Melissa Quarrie said in an email.

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The board announced Tuesday that it had previously contacted Ontario Provincial Police with regards to the incident in July.

“At that point the investigation into the incident was just beginning. Waterloo Region District School Board (WRDSB) followed a standard process recommended by our cyber experts and more information was learned about the attack,” the statement read.

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“Since initially reporting this incident to OPP in July, WRDSB has shared additional information with local law enforcement.”

The board announced the attack in July and a few weeks later it announced that hackers managed to get into a restricted network drive which included payroll information including “names, birthdates, banking information, and social insurance numbers of all current and past employees dating back to 1970.”

It said it was still working to discover what other information the hackers had accessed.

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