MIAMI-DADE, Fla. — Miami-Dade Public Schools reported Tuesday that technical issues have affected virtual learning for two consecutive days.
According to a school district message via Twitter, the internet service was intermittent and interrupted Tuesday morning, but it became operational later.
The district said it's working with Comcast to determine the cause of the problem.
More than 160,000 students and over 1,000 teachers were logged on the K12 platform, the district added.
NBC 6 reported that Miami-Dade Public Schools Superintendent Alberto Carvalho said the system was hit by a cyber attack called a distributed denial of service attack.
"There was a malicious attempt, malicious, well-orchestrated, complex attempt at derailing, destroying the connection which is essential for our students and teachers," Carvalho said.
Comcast released the following statement:
"Comcast has a longstanding relationship with the Miami Dade County Public Schools and we place tremendous value on the partnership we have built together over time. We have worked together to connect tens of thousands of families to the internet, so any issue that could impact internet access is one that we take very seriously," Comcast said in a statement. "Comcast became aware of an issue impacting the Miami Dade School District network, causing many families to be unable to access the learning site as the school day began. Given this took place during the beginning of school, we understand how important connectivity is for virtual learning during this unprecedented time. We are continuing to monitor the situation and are working with the school district and law enforcement to ensure this doesn’t happen again. We sincerely apologize to the families, teachers and students who were kept offline."
Miami-Dade Public Schools also released the statement below:
"MDCPS has been working tirelessly throughout the day, in collaboration with our network solutions company Cisco Systems, to identify the problem and offer a solution,"
Our internet service was intermittently interrupted early this morning. It is operational at this time. We're working with our service provider, @comcast, to determine the root cause. As of 9 a.m, more than 160,000 students & over 10,000 teachers were logged on the K12 platform. pic.twitter.com/8HKkBR9bNq
— Miami-Dade Schools (@MDCPS) September 1, 2020