Jackson County Public Schools faced a reflection DDoS attack originating from overseas (Russia and China), overwhelming its firewall and crippling the entire network. The attack began on Saturday, initially mistaken for routine internet outages, but escalated into a full-scale disruption by Sunday. While no student or staff data was compromised, the district was forced to shut down all schools on Tuesday (Nov. 25) due to the collapse of critical systems, including Wi-Fi, internal servers, phones, cameras, and door access controls. Emergency hardline phones remained operational, but were insufficient for campus-wide safety. The attack disrupted operations for two days, with restoration completed by Monday post-Thanksgiving. Officials confirmed the district was likely an unintended 'pass-through' target in a larger cyber operation, with no ransomware or data breach involved. IT teams worked continuously to mitigate the attack, ensuring no unauthorized network access occurred.