DOS Attack Of The LVUSD Website

A "DO Attack" stands for "Denial of Services Attack". This happens when computers or servers with a big connection to the Internet send excessive amounts of data to another server which stops the server from doing its job. In our case, our web server could not serve web pages.

We host our website at a major co-location facility. The security department at the site reported that the flood is coming from across the Globe... China, Russia, Japan, Mexico, Sweden, and Romania. An attack like this cost money. It started at 7:00 a.m. 4/24/2012 and stopped at 9:30 a.m. 4/25/2012. The hosting company is preparing a report and will give recommendations on how to better respond to such an attack in the future.

Unfortunately, each recommendation will cost more money on a recurring basis to provide web services at a time when we are facing even deeper financial cutbacks from our state budget. This is only one aspect of an attack like this. Many of our students depend on homework assignments and resources provided by teacher websites. In the last two years many of our teachers have been committed to saving paper and money utilizing this resource.

Another sad outcome is the impact on our community. I received a phone call from a parent today who had a child attending Astro camp with students and teachers from A. C. Stelle Middle School. Our great staff at Stelle post live pictures via our website of activities at the camp. For parents who are letting their children go on their first overnight school activity it was disturbing that this was taken away.

By the amount of data flood, and the targeted attack, I can only deduct that this was not a random crime. Someone or a group has an issue against the district and took it out in this manner. We live in an active community and have a caring school board. There are bound to be issue and complaints at times. Our public law gives us a school board for community representation. This is a much better venue to express issues.