Concerns grow for Alabama teachers as data breach investigation continues

MONTGOMERY, Alabama (WIAT) – Concerns for Alabama teachers continue to grow as the State Board of Education investigates a recent data breach.

State Schools Superintendent Dr. Eric Mackey is assuring the public that retirement accounts and bank information are not at risk and has issued a warning to current employees and parents.

“I would continue to monitor their credit information,” Dr. Mackey said. “We don’t have any details at this time about what will happen in the future.”

Dr. Mackey said hacking attacks on local school systems happen every day, but he described the cyberattack as if the hackers were breaking down a door rather than finding an open door in the computer system.

“The agents explained it to me like this: ‘Look, if you leave a door open, it’s your fault.’ But in this case, all the doors and windows were locked, but they stood at the door with a battering ram until they broke it down,” he said.

Dr. Mackey also said that artificial intelligence has brought greater and better security to the government system.

“Even though we are building stronger walls to keep them out, we are very happy with where we are now. But we know that over time they will build stronger walls too. So it is a continuing cycle,” he said.

For more information, visit alabamaachieves.org/databreach. You can also submit a question about the cyberattack to the board at [email protected].