Serving Williston Park, East Williston, Mineola, Albertson and Searingtown
$1
Friday, August 30, 2019
Vol. 68, No. 35
BACK TO SCHOOL
ANTIVAX PARENTS SPEAK OUT
TOWN SHUT OUT OF EARLY VOTING LOCATIONS
PAGES 35-46
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Cyberattack on Mineola school district
LIONS SPONSOR GUIDE DOGS
Computer network recovering from crippling intrusion: superintendent BY TOM M CC A RT HY The Mineola school district said that it is beginning to recover from a cyberattack that crippled its network, but no sensitive data was compromised. Superintendent Michael Nagler warned that Mineola will not be the last district to be attacked. “We have been victims of a malware attack on our computer network,” Nagler said at a Board of Education meeting last Thursday. “And it is affecting all of our equipment, so we’re slowly but surely bringing things back to a clean network.” In January, Nagler said, a district employee downloaded a virus onto a computer and it began to develop. “Slowly, but surely, that virus sat on the PC and made its way into our network with the intention of looking for vulnerabilities in our network to exploit,” Nagler said. It sat on the network for six months after that, he said.
Nagler said that no personal data was breached as it was not on the network. The network consists of files like Excel spreadsheets and Word documents. Nagler said the board is required by law to say if personal data was breached by the attack. Nagler said that a different system hosts “sensitive information” and that one was not compromised by the malware attack. It was a Windows-based virus and was not able to compromise Apple computers, Nagler said. The intention of this virus is constantly “phoning home” or letting the “bad guy,” or the creator of the virus, know of the network’s vulnerabilities. On Aug 4, the “bad guy” sold the data to another “bad guy” and put the network’s data into what Nagler defined as “ransomware.” “When the virus struck it did cripple our network, but it did not infect all of our data,” Nagler said. Continued on Page 66
PHOTO COURTESY OF RICH NICOLELLO
The Edward Smith Mineola Lions Club recently made a $12,000 donation to sponsor two guide dogs for the visually impaired. From left, Lions President Bill Greene, founder of the “League of Yes” Kristine Fitzpatrick and Lions Vice President Pat Smith. See story on page 22.
Mineola joins Roslyn, Port in contaminant suit BY TOM MCCARTHY
manufacturing companies demanding that damages be paid for contaminants found in their The Village of Mineola water systems. The defendants are the 3M has joined the Roslyn and Port Washington water districts in Co., Dyneon LLC, E.I. DuPont filing lawsuits against chemical de Nemours and Co. and the
Chemours Co. The suits allege that the contaminants found in local water wells come from these companies’ products. Mineola Clerk Joseph Scalero said that the village’s Continued on Page 67
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