Eyewitness News confirmed a student in Union County Public Schools has been questioned in connection with last week's possible hacking of the district's digital server.

Two sources close to the investigation confirmed Thursday that the student could be tied to the incident, which shut down the district's website for several days.

In the incident, the self-proclaimed hacker sent an email to the district's central office, warning administrators he or she had breached the system and providing the names and Social Security numbers of two district employees as proof, Channel 9 confirmed.

Authorities and administrators alike maintain they are still not certain if the hacking attempt was real -- or a hoax.

"At this point, we are not sure if any information was compromised at all," said Rob Jackson, a district spokesman.

Neither Jackson nor the Union County Sheriff's Office would comment on any potential persons of interest. The Sheriff's Office said its investigation is ongoing.

Jackson said since the incident, UCPS has made major security upgrades to its server, which included a complete reboot of the website on a new web browser.

He said an IT team is combing the new server for any vulnerable areas that hackers could exploit.
"They are working with law enforcement through the investigation to help identify any areas of perceived weaknesses," Jackson said.

Jackson said as incidents of hacking skyrocket across the world, more school districts could fall victim, and said last week's incident was a good test for the district.

"There's always room for improvement; continuous improvement is one of our core values," Jackson said.