ETHS Closed June 8-9 Due to Cyberattack
Second local educational institution impacted by ransomware attack in last month
This evening, at 8:28pm, ETHS notified families that the school will close for two days this week following a cyberattack. With classes already out for the summer, the shutdown falls on summer school and camp programming rather than the regular term.
Dear Students and Families:
We are writing to inform you that a ransomware attack has disrupted access to district systems, internet services, and computer infrastructure. Due to this incident, Evanston Township High School will be closed on Monday, June 8 and Tuesday, June 9, 2026. All Summer School classes, sports camps, and other on-campus activities scheduled during this time are canceled. We will provide further updates regarding the schedule for the remainder of the week.
Upon discovering the incident, we immediately activated our incident response procedures and engaged external cyber breach attorneys and cybersecurity forensic experts to assist with the investigation and recovery process. We are working with these specialists to determine precisely what information may have been accessed or acquired and to restore normal systems operations as quickly as possible. The district is cooperating with the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) as part of the ongoing investigation.
In the meantime, please be aware that phone systems are unavailable, and staff may have limited access to email. Families may not be able to access certain online tools, accounts, or school resources during this time, including Home Access Center.
As our investigation and recovery efforts continue, regular updates will be posted at eths202.org/CybersecurityIncident.
Thank you,
Dr. Marcus A. Campbell
Superintendent
This is on the heels of Northwestern’s learning management system (Canvas) being hacked on May 8th in a ransomeware attack. In the case of Northwestern, the vendor, Instructure, paid the ransom with a promise to delete the exfiltrated records. In January 2025, District 65 was impacted by a ransomware hack of their student management system, PowerSchool. The PowerSchool hacker was eventually caught and sentenced.
The details of the ETHS ransomware attack are not yet public and they have not identified whether student data was exfiltrated or not.
This isn’t ETHS’ first experience with cybercrime. In 2023, I wrote a story about the theft of $48,000 in a wire fraud case involving fraudulent invoices and a money mule in Bakersfield, California.