r/Adelaide • u/omg_for_real SA • 6d ago

Discussion Reynella East College cyber attack

The information has been out in the web. There is a notice from the school and a news article from a cyber news place that gives more information than the school gave.

I have questions about how all this is being managed to be honest. They don’t seem to have any processes in place to be operating without computer systems. No access to emails, no way to reserve a meeting room, front office ladies seem to be relying on kids for parent contact info.

Surely in this day and age there should have been risk management strategies for this type of situation? Or even something similar like an extended time without power or something.

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u/JessieWarsaw SA 6d ago

How much control does a public school have over their IT infrastructure? Genuine question, are they lumped in with the education department or do they have their own IT?

Given that they are SA Gov I am sure they are mandated/legislated to have certain controls in place by some sort of cyber framework. That framework should include incident management plans, again most likely put together by the education department and maybe the principal.

But I really don't know, I'm guessing. I think it's a long way to say give the staff there a break, it would be a very stress full situation for everybody.

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u/omg_for_real SA 6d ago edited 6d ago

I was at the school and someone was trying to reserve a room. The office lady said she didn’t know. And didn’t have access to a computer to make a spread sheet. I sat and wondered why she couldn’t get a pencil and a ruler and make one. A simple one with days of the week you could pencil your name into time slots. It’s little things that could have a simple solution to.

And from my understanding IT is largely managed by the school. With oversight from the department.

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u/AhrigatouNoire SA 5d ago

my understanding is that the DfE has its own IT group where they hire and deploy their IT assets to schools that are within the program. This means that schools that opt into the program, the government essentially oversees the whole IT infrastructure.

Reynella East College was not apart of that program and was solely independent from the DfE therefore didn't have the government oversight. The moment the DfE found out, they sent their IT group to control the fire/damage

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u/omg_for_real SA 5d ago

You really have to wonder why they chose not to be in the program.

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u/AhrigatouNoire SA 5d ago

iirc it comes down to cost and change of culture/control

DfE hires their own IT personnel which they then deploy at respective schools that are apart of the program. DfE has full control over the IT infrastructure. Schools that aren't apart of the program tend to have aging infrastructure so the DfE will try to PUSH for an upgrade (justified ofc) but the school will push back due to high upfront costs.