For Immediate Release – Nathan Pugh, Superintendent, Oakland CUSD#5
January 6, 2026
Oakland CUSD5 Cybersecurity Incident
Over the holiday break, Oakland Community School District 5 was the victim of a cybersecurity attack. Immediately after detecting unauthorized access, we engaged with cybersecurity experts. With their assistance, we were able to fully secure and recover all systems by the end of holiday break, such that there was no impact to students or staff. We are in communication with law enforcement regarding the incident.
The criminals did demand payment, as they are known to do. I want to emphasize that we did not pay these criminals any amount of money. We were able to fully recover by utilizing our backup systems, without the assistance of these criminals. While the investigation is ongoing, at this time we do not believe that any sensitive student data was impacted. For staff, we also do not believe that our human resources or payroll systems were impacted.
While this cyber incident stressed our resilience and capabilities, I’m proud of the fact that we were able to overcome it. It is a testament to our preparedness, resilience, and grit. We will learn from this event and adjust our cybersecurity posture where appropriate.
