Cloquet school district has been hit by a ransomware attack Attack.Ransom second time in the past three years . The ransomware is a virulent computer malware , which attacks by spreading from one computer to another and locking up the access to the network servers . The ransomware also encrypts the documents and then demands ransom Attack.Ransom for providing a key to unlock encrypted files . In March 2016 , the previous occasion when the ransomware attacked , the district cancelled the school for one day so as to let the technology staff have time for recovering from the malware . During that attack , the district servers as well as over 600 computers got infected badly . The current attack took place during the summer vacation , and was not as harmful as of last time . As per staff report from T.J. Smith , Cloquet School District Technology Director , the virus has encrypted files available on all the servers except one , this included the network shared drives . However , the attack Attack.Databreach does not indicate stealing Attack.Databreach of any information . The virus only encrypted the files , so that the users were not able to open them . Board members of Cloquet School were explained by Smith on 13 Aug , 2018 , that the district only was left with two options other than succumbing to the demands of ransom Attack.Ransom by the hacker - one , trying to recover data with a probability that the data may not be retrieved and then it would be a complete waste of money and time . The second option was to plan out the way of recreating the data and rebuilding the affected servers . Smith , however , advocated for second option as the data lost was not so important and the insurance will help in paying out for recovering the infected servers . Unanimously , the board members also voted for second option , which is recreating the data and rebuilding the affected servers . Besides , the board members suggested hiring a `` forensic '' company to investigate on the ransomware attack Attack.Ransom and determine the source from where the virus has entered . On a brighter side , Smith revealed that the technology staffs have been able to recover some of the lost data , and they are also capable of recreating the data that is unrecoverable . He also commented that the process of recovery will not at any cost affect the commencement of the school session in the month of September .