In December 2023, the West Clermont Local School District learned it was the victim of a sophisticated cyber-attack, classified as social engineering, that is anticipated to result in an approximate $1.7 million net loss. Many attacks of this nature are driven by international criminals. Importantly, no personally identifiable information was compromised in the attack and no student education records were involved. Rather, a threat actor diverted several Automated Clearing House (ACH) electronic payments to multiple bank accounts that were not owned by a vendor of the District.

Once discovered, the District immediately followed its policies and procedures, which included contacting local and federal law enforcement. The District also notified its financial institutions, submitted a claim to its insurance carrier, and notified representatives of the Ohio Auditor of State. The District has been working with these entities to take all necessary steps to recover the funds. As the community knows, the district places a high priority on transparency. With that being said, this is an ongoing open investigation; we have not been able to communicate until now. The District has been complying with law enforcement to protect the integrity of the case.

Though the District had robust preventative measures in place at the time of the attack, once it became apparent that the District was the victim of a cyber-crime, our IT staff performed a comprehensive scan of the Districtʼs computer networks and found no malicious or unauthorized entry. Since this attack, the District has implemented additional vendor authentication and payment protocols, including the discontinuation of ACH payments to all outside vendors. The District continues to provide extensive cybersecurity training to its staff – both in individual and group sessions.

Although this loss is painful and upsetting, this will not impact the recent announcement of extending any expected request for new operational money until 2026. The District does not anticipate cutting any programs, services or employees.

We will update the School Community should new developments arise in this case.