Dealing with Cyber Attacks

Keeping the school internet online is always a primary focus for the Technology Office.  When it goes offline, the cause is usually a power loss, a failed network device, or problems with the telecommunication lines to our internet provider.  But, sometimes, the problem is caused by a form of cyber attack called Distributed Denial of Service.  We have lost internet for several hours at least three times in the past two years for this reason.  In response to this problem, our internet provider has been working with us to put software in place to quickly identify when such attacks occur, and to respond quickly to them to minimize downtime.  Today such a problem occurred right before before school meeting.  The attack was identified and mitigated with less than two minutes of downtime.  This represents the next step forward for us in providing stable, reliable internet service at the school.