Files that were scrambled in a ransomware attack Attack.Ransom on Hāwera High School in Taranaki included school assessments that students had only partly completed as well as backups , principal Rachel Williams has confirmed . More help is on the way for schools battling ransomware and other malware , but it has come a little late for the school which is being held to ransom Attack.Ransom for US $ 5000 by hackers . N4L , the Crown-owned company that manages the provision of broadband to schools , said it would improve online security as part of a wider upgrade of its managed network that is due to be completed by October next year . The 2450 schools and 800,000 students on the network will get a new security solution supplied by Californian company Fortinet which would provide `` more robust protection against online threats , such as phishing Attack.Phishing and ransomware '' , it said in a statement issued on Monday . Ironically , that was the same day that staff at Hāwera High School switched on their computers to discover the message demanding Attack.Ransom US $ 5000 ( NZ $ 7352 ) in bitcoin for the return of encrypted data on a server containing students ' work and teaching resources . Hāwera High School is connected to ultrafast broadband via N4L , but N4L chief executive Larrie Moore said the school had opted out of N4L 's existing security solution and was instead using an alternative commercial offering . `` We 've been in touch with the school and their IT company to offer our support , '' he said . `` Until we know how the school 's network was compromised , we are unable to say whether the new Fortinet solution would have prevented it , '' he said . But Moore said there was no `` silver bullet '' for malware . Instead , technological protections needed to be used in combination with `` continuous education around good digital citizenship '' , he said . Williams said many of its students and teachers had backed up their files in the cloud and were not affected by the ransomware attack Attack.Ransom , but backups stored on servers at the school were also encrypted by the hackers . `` We have been working today on getting a clearer audit of student and staff work and where we are at . Some students are really not affected at all because they have saved their work on their cloud-based system . `` If students were part-way through an assessment , some of those are the ones that are encrypted and we ca n't access those at the moment . '' The school was working with NZQA to make sure those students were not disadvantaged , she said . Others had backups of their work at home , she said . Williams was not sure how the malware had arrived at the school , saying that was still being investigated . The Government is not believed to have any rules on whether state-funded organisations such as schools can pay ransoms Attack.Ransom , but in 2017 it issued advice against it and Williams said the school would follow police advice not to pay Attack.Ransom . While the incident had been annoying , `` you see people 's character come through and we 've seen real resilience from our staff and students '' , Williams said . `` It is not stopping us doing what we need to do . '' N4L said its technology upgrade would be the first major refresh of its network since it began connecting schools with ultrafast broadband at the end of 2013 . Its existing security system had blocked more than 118,000 viruses and malware threats so far during this school year , it said .