'A Massive Effort'

Atom Group Reports On Newfound Ransomware Attack

Jason Sgro of Atom Group provides an update to the Newfound Area School Board on his firm's work in restoring service following a ransomware attack on the district's servers. Standing with him is Paul Ciotti, Newfound’s technology coordinator. (Tom Caldwell Photo)

BRISTOL — School Administrative Unit 4 is recovering from a November 15 cyber breach, described as a ransomware attack because it locked users out, although the unknown hacker did not make a financial demand.

Jason Sgro, a senior partner at the Atom Group, the cyber response company based in Portsmouth that is working to restore the computer network, told members of the Newfound Area School Board that most functions, including printing, should be restored by December 15. He said the timeline for restoring financial data at the central office “is definitely still in question. That will be a massive effort.”

The business office is using Excel spreadsheets to handle work such as payroll and purchasing while the Atom Group works to rebuild the lost data.

Most classroom operations had been restored as of December 11, but the printing of documents remained impossible, and wireless access will continue to experience disruptions while the team works to recover other services, Sgro said.