Youth apprehended in hacking of S.F. Catholic schools

A computer hacker who temporarily shut down phone, email and Internet services for Sioux Falls Catholic schools has been apprehended.

"Somebody hacked us. We have reported it and found the person who was responsible," Tom Lorang, superintendent of the Catholic system, said Friday night.

Sioux Falls Police Sgt. Aaron Benson said he was not at liberty to say whether an arrest had been made.

"It involves a juvenile, and it's still an open investigation," Benson said.

Internet and email were down all day Thursday at the O'Gorman junior and senior high schools and at the six Catholic elementary schools in Sioux Falls. Phone service was down Thursday morning before technicians restored it.

All systems were running again Friday.

"We're assessing now the security of our system to see what it is we have to do to be sure it doesn't happen again," Lorang said. "It appears there was no permanent damage."

Lorang would not say whether the hacker is a student or specify how officials were able to identify the individual.

"It was reported by some people," he said.

Asked whether the incident might have been a stunt to show how easy it is to compromise a computer system, Lorang said: "Could be. I don't know. Anything's possible."

He said hacking is a crime and that school officials called police. The system has more than 2,600 students in pre-kindergarten and K-12 programs, including 360 junior high students in grades 7-8 and 735 in high school.

Classes continued Thursday minus the electronic programs. The incident affected a large number of classes and administrative functions, Lorang said.

"Every one of our classrooms are hooked up," he said. "Anybody planning to use technology had to improvise."