Late payday coming for some at WRDSB, 1 week after cyberattack

Some employees will get paid and some won't on Friday, the Waterloo Region District School Board said in a release late Wednesday. A week ago the board sent a letter to parents saying it had been hit by a cyber attack.

"Automated pay deposits will be made," a release from spokesperson Eusis Dougan-McKenzie said. 

However, the release also noted, "since we are still not fully functional we do have some employees who will not receive pay this Friday. We will process those payments as soon as we have full access to our systems."

The statement gave no timeline for when that access might be restored.

The board also said it had been in contact with federal officials at Service Canada about the payment problems.

"The WRDSB is working on providing Service Canada with records of employment for those employees who submit employment insurance claims,' the release said.

Cyberattack

Last week after the board announced it had been victimized in the cyberattack, it said future information about it would be shared directly with people who were impacted.

At that time, spokesperson Estefania Brandenstein said she was unable to say what kinds of files — if any — may have been accessed or if the school board paid money to regain access to its system.

This region has seen other cyberattacks in recent years:

• In 2019, the Waterloo Catholic District School Board reported a "significant malware" attack on its computers, although the board said it did not believe any personal and business information was obtained.
• Waterloo Brewing was hit in November 2019. 
• Hospitals in Listowel and Wingham were hit in October 2019.
• The City of Stratford agreed to pay $75,000 in Bitcoin to regain access to its systems from a hacker in September 2019.