KLEIN, Texas — A high school student is in big trouble after he allegedly launched cyberattacks that impacted the entire Klein Independent School District right in the middle of STAAR tests.
According to court documents, the 18-year-old Klein Forest High School student confessed that he was behind the April 16-17 attacks that disrupted state-mandated testing for 24,279 students. All Klein ISD campuses were impacted, the district said.
Keontra Lamont Kenemore is charged with electronic access interference, a third-degree felony.
Investigators with the KISD Police Department said Kenemore used his school-issued laptop, school and personal emails and personal cellphone to cause the massive disruption. They said he failed to cover his digital fingerprints, so it didn't take long to identify him.
It started just before noon on Tuesday, April 16, when the IT department learned there were issues during STAAR testing at Klein Forest. Students were locked out and had to stop and restart their writing essays and multiple-choice answers.
On April 17, students district-wide were locked out. They lost all of their work and had to start over on their STAAR tests. A third cyberattack on April 18 caused more disruptions at Klein Forest. A fourth attempt on April 19 failed.
The following day, the Klein Forest principal and assistant principal pulled Kenemore out of class and they said he admitted he accessed the two websites used to bring down the system. Kenemore claimed his Cash App that he used to buy bitcoins was hacked but he denied that he used the bitcoins to access the websites. He also said his three personal emails were hacked.