LODI, Calif. — The Lodi Police Department is investigating a “cyber security” issue that knocked out internet access across the Lodi Unified School District, a school spokesperson said Monday.
The issue has halted Wi-Fi and access to internet, e-mail, and the district’s websites, said Chelsea Vongehr, a spokesperson for Lodi Unified. Staff were notified about the issue last night, and parents were notified this morning by text message.
“Law enforcement has been notified, and we are investigating this issue to hopefully provide more information to our community in the near-term future,” Vongehr said.
School officials said they could not comment on what triggered the investigation due to its ongoing nature. Lodi Police did not immediately respond to the request for comment.
Phone lines have also been disrupted at multiple school sites and the Lodi Unified School District Offices, Vongehr said. Phone lines are currently down at Davis Elementary School, Ellerth E. Larson Elementary School, Lockeford Elementary School, Oakwood Elementary School and Tokay Colony Elementary School. Around 8 p.m., the district said phone lines for Valley Robotics Academy and and Middle College High School were working again.
“Unfortunately, our website is down right now, our e-mails are sometimes working, sometimes not working,” Vongehr said. “So, right now, folks can contact us through social media. They can contact (us) through some of our work phones directly.”
Two school sites are in session including Middle College High School and the Valley Robotics Academy, as students with 48 other schools sites are on Fall break.
Students at the Valley Robotics Academy are using hotspots and doing class work that does not require internet, Vongehr said. The district plans to bring 200 mobile-hotspots to the school sites tomorrow in case the network issue is not resolved.
Students with Middle College High attend classes on the campus of Delta College and are using that network, which is not affected by the issue, Vongehr said.
The district is working quickly to restore the network and phone lines, but it’s unclear how long that will take. Officials say they hope to have their main phone line available by Tuesday morning. The number to the Lodi Unified School District Office is (209) 331-7000.
The attack comes the same day as major social networking sites Facebook, Instagram, and What’s App were down for more than six hours worldwide. Officials have not announced the cause of the social media outage.
