Case Study: Urbana School District #116 achieves rapid ransomware recovery and resilient data protection with Skyward

Illinois District Survives Ransomware Attack with Support of SIS Provider

Urbana School District #116 faced a 2017 ransomware attack that encrypted district files and threatened months or years of lost work. The district, which had used Skyward since 2007 and relied on Skyward’s preferred hosting partner ISCorp for regular backups, needed urgent help to recover its student information system (SIS) and related data.

Skyward stepped in to coordinate with ISCorp to restore and re-upload the district’s data into its Skyward account, enabling Urbana School District #116 to avoid recreating extensive records — only a couple of days’ worth of work had to be manually redone — and return to normal operations quickly. Following the incident, Skyward’s ongoing hosting and real-time updates with ISCorp now provide 24/7 backups and support, giving the district greater resilience while it develops a broader disaster recovery plan.

Urbana School District #116

Carol Baker

Chief Financial Officer