Payroll issues: Ransomware attack impacts 21 Pinal County school districts

Pinal County schools confirmed to ABC15 Thursday night their data processing service consortium was attacked over the weekend, putting paychecks in jeopardy for some school employees this week throughout the 21 districts in the county.

An employee of the Casa Grande Union High School District says staff members were first told of a potential “glitch” in the system that could impact direct deposit paychecks on Tuesday.

Staff were told paper checks would be issued this week, but on Thursday afternoon, another email was sent out warning about concerns the county may not reach the deadline to issue paychecks.

In a statement, Pinal County Superintendent Jill Broussard told ABC15:

“The Pinal County School Office Data Processing Service Consortium was the victim of a ransomware attack this past weekend.

Our staff has been working diligently, around the clock, to restore access to the data for our school districts.

To our knowledge, our employee data has not been compromised. We will continue to investigate and update the districts.

Most of the system has been restored and the districts have access, as of last night.

Payrolls that were submitted prior to the attack have been processed as usual. We are moving forward with processing the remaining district payrolls with an expected distribution of checks on their regularly scheduled pay date.”

Read the full story from ABC15 Arizona here.