Teachers Pay Teachers blocked

[Dallas Turner]

Hey all,

The following was an announcement to staff from Rockford Public Schools yesterday:

"On Friday, November 18, 2022, the Technology Services Department sent out an email to all staff regarding two (2) isolated ransomware incidents within thirty (30) days that were very close in timeline with access to the Teachers Pay Teachers website.  At that time, we chose to disable access to Teachers Pay Teachers until the RPS IT Security Team and the district’s early cyber detection and response provider conducted post-incident assessments for the incidents.  The assessments of the incidents were completed late Friday evening. In both cases, files downloaded from Teachers Pay Teachers were the cause of the ransomware on the infected computers.  Threat actors are using the TPT website to upload malicious content with the understanding that teachers use the website extensively for instructional material."

Some teachers have accused our IT department of this be a justification for blocking a site that our curriculum department has wanted to block for a while.  Does your district allow TPT?