Burnaby School District Cyberattack Disrupts Phones, Wi-Fi and Printers Since Monday

A cyber incident has kept internet and phone services down across the Burnaby School District since Monday, disrupting routine communication for families, staff and students in one of British Columbia’s largest school districts.

The district says staff and its IT team are working to contain the incident and restore normal operations as quickly as possible. But it has not described what happened, confirmed whether student or staff data was compromised, or said when all services will be back.

Families Turn To Email

With phone lines unavailable, the district has asked parents to report student absences through their school’s general email address.

In a message to families, superintendent Karim Hachlaf said the disruption had affected “some of our systems and operations, including internal network services and phone lines.”

“We recognize the inconvenience this disruption is causing and appreciate your patience while we work to restore services as quickly and securely as possible,” Hachlaf said.

The outage has put a renewed focus on the everyday systems that support school operations, from communicating absences to accessing online resources. The district says staff are working to maintain normal operations while its IT team addresses the incident.

According to CBC News, printers were also out of action across the district as of Thursday.

Questions About Data Remain

The district has provided no information confirming whether data belonging to students or staff was affected. It has also not disclosed the nature of the cyber incident.

That uncertainty is weighing on some parents. Meagan Carver, who says she has daughters in Grades 8 and 10 at Burnaby Mountain Secondary School, called the possibility of a data breach “a huge concern.”

“My youngest does have autism … there’s a lot of medical information in her file,” Carver said. “So, you know, losing any of that stuff or that getting out there would be pretty devastating.”

Carver said the disruption has made it difficult for her children to complete some school work, while praising her school’s communication with families.

“By and large, our school has been really good about keeping things up to date for us,” she said.

Cybersecurity Expert Warns Of Timing

Chester Wisniewski, a director at security software company Sophos, told CBC that September is a common time for cybercriminals to target public school systems. He said such attacks often involve extortion demands, exploiting the pressure on schools to restore systems quickly.

“We get back to work, we start doing things again,” Wisniewski said. “And it’s a really disruptive time for a school to close.”

He said parents should be especially cautious about possible follow-up scams if personal information has been taken, though the Burnaby district has not confirmed any compromise.

“We do see follow-on attacks with this stolen information,” Wisniewski said. “It makes it more believable, because they know something about you.”

A Large District Awaits Updates

The outage reaches a substantial school community. The B.C. government said the Burnaby School District has more than 29,600 students in the 2025-26 school year, including 41 elementary schools and eight secondary schools, CBC reported.

For now, the district’s public message remains centred on containment and restoration. It says it will provide an update when it is able to do so.

Head Topics reported that the district has not provided a timeline for full restoration, leaving families and staff to rely on school email while the phones and internet remain down.

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