Dr. Diane DeBacker
Kansas Commissioner of Education
Kansas State Department of Education Media Release
TOPEKA -The Kansas State Department of Education announced today that it has suspended testing across the state until Thursday, April 3 at which time operating enhancements will be completed.
The Kansas Interactive Testing Engine (KITE) was the target of a Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack this morning. DDoS attacks attempt to shut down computer servers by bombarding them with intense volumes of data that servers cannot handle. The Center for Educational Testing and Evaluation (CETE), which is administering the state assessments, identified the issue and immediately had outside experts working to eradicate the attack. At no time during the incident were student data compromised in any way.
On Monday, March 31, Kansas schools recorded the highest volume of assessments completed since the testing window opened March 10.
Said Kansas Education Commissioner Dr. Diane DeBacker. “We’re disappointed that this morning’s incident occurred, but we are pleased with how the system responded and we’re confident CETE will make the necessary modifications to insure we remain up and running.”