Cyberattack blamed for foiling Grade 10 literacy test

EQAO officials confirmed Monday that the postponement of last Thursday’s EQAO Grade 10 literacy test was caused by a cyberattack.

The attack, which came from an array of IP addresses around the world, clogged up the system and prevented students from logging into the test.

“It’s really surprising, shocking actually, and something we never expected,” said Richard Jones, director of assessment for EQAO (Education Quality and Accountability Office). “It’s obvious whoever did this knew the time frame, the IP addresses and when to start the disruption. It’s obvious they were monitoring the test.

“We were targeted and this was intentional,” he added.

The attack began shortly before 8 a.m. Thursday and at its height, only one per cent of the traffic in the system was coming from schools and school boards.

Jones said no personal or private information was compromised during the attack.

The police have been notified and EQAO intends to pursue this as far as it can. EQAO has also hired a forensic firm to conduct an investigation of the incident.

“It’s a criminal act,” said Jones, who expects to have beefed-up security measures in place to protect the test system in two to three months.

“I’m not sure we’ll be able to trace it to anyone and we don’t know the motivation for it.”

EQAO had done nearly two years of preparation and smaller scale testing with virtually every board in the province leading up to Thursday.

Students must pass the Ontario Secondary School Literacy Test to graduate. Though Thursday’s online test was voluntary, students who passed it could, for the first time, count it toward their graduation requirements.

According to EQAO’s data, 16,000 tests were recorded as having been completed. EQAO officials are working on verifying that.

Jones said there’s a possibility that those who did complete the test could get credit for it.

“We want to be fair to the students who put a lot of work in, in preparing for the test, if we can,” Jones said.

Jones admits the cancellation of the test is a costly setback in a number of ways.

“Direct costs, not including the time and effort of our staff, students, teachers and school boards, is about $250,000,” Jones said.

He said having to print the tests isn’t part of that cost.

EQAO was always going to have some papers tests available for those who preferred that method of testing. Just how many extra tests will now need to be printed hasn’t yet been determined.

However, Jones said that the more painful blow is to EQAO’s reputation.

“It’s very costly to the EQAO brand,” Jones said. “We pride ourselves on putting the best test and process out as possible. This is a huge cost to us in that way.

“It’s going to take a fair time to win the trust and confidence of those in the field that online assessment will work,” he continued. “I have to apologize again. This is really demoralizing.”

Jones said EQAO wouldn’t attempt to do a second voluntary test.

Instead, EQAO will continue with its normal schedule of offering the test in March.

“A lot of work goes into getting this online,” Jones said.

“There’s also the issue of scoring the tests.

“There’s just not enough time to reschedule it.”

Online and paper versions of the test will be available to students in March.

“We still believe in online testing,” Jones said. “I’m very confident with it. It’s definitely the direction we will go in the future.”

Direct costs, not including the time and effort of our staff, students, teachers and school boards, is about $250,000.