MPS Families and Students: 

Thank you for your patience throughout this week as we continue to work diligently to restore viable backups and put security measures in our environment before returning to schools and classrooms in person this coming Monday.

Status of investigation

As we indicated in our email on Feb. 20, 2023, MPS experienced technical difficulties affecting the operability of certain computer systems related to what we now know is an encryption event. MPS IT staff and external IT specialists have been working around the clock to investigate the source of this disruption and to confirm its impact on our systems. 

To date, our investigation has found no evidence that personal information was compromised as a result of this event. If it is determined that personal information has been impacted, we will notify those specifically impacted individuals. 

As a best practice and out of an abundance of caution, we suggest you change all passwords for any online personal accounts that you may have accessed on MPS devices. 

MPS students returning to schools on Monday

Many systems are now or will soon be restored to full functionality including internet, phones, cameras, badge access, copiers/printers, and building alarms.

When students return to school on Monday, they will be guided through a process to reset all passwords before their MPS accounts return to functionality. We continue to work hard to restore full functionality of additional systems from secure backups in place prior to the event. 

Steps taken to restore functionality

In order to secure our systems, MPS IT deployed an advanced endpoint detection response tool to necessary endpoints, updated relevant passwords, implemented additional multi-factor authentication where possible and are utilizing a third-party specialist to assist monitoring our network. 

As part of our ongoing investigation, we are assessing existing measures we have in place to protect the integrity of our systems and will continue to work to enhance these protections. This means that any systems that are not yet functional may be down for a period of time on Monday. Thank you for your continued patience as we restore all systems over in the days ahead.

We apologize for this extraordinary inconvenience and thank you again for your flexibility and problem-solving. The confidentiality, privacy, and security of your information in our care is vital. We will provide further updates as they become available.