Billericay School battles cyber attack with four years sent home.
An Essex school has closed after being hit by “a significant” cyber attack.
A notice on the website of the Billericay School said the school was closed for years seven, eight, nine and 12 “due to cyber/malware attack.”
A statement released on Friday claimed that the school had taken all of the precautionary security measures to deal with any such cyber threat, “this attack has resulted in all of the school IT system being compromised and inaccessible by a complex encryption.”
Headteacher Patrick Berry, said: “Whilst our IT support staff are working hard to resolve the issue and have already made significant progress in restoring the required systems, the situation as it stands is significantly affecting our ability to operate the school safely and effectively.”
Berry acknowledged the “additional strain this will place upon families,” he stressed the importance of the school operating safely and effectively “in wake of this significant critical incident.”
Written by
Dan Raywood is a B2B journalist with 25 years of experience, including covering cybersecurity for the past 17 years. He has extensively covered topics from Advanced Persistent Threats and nation-state hackers to major data breaches and regulatory changes.
He has spoken at events including 44CON, Infosecurity Europe, RANT Forum, BSides Scotland, Steelcon and the National Cyber Security Show, and served as editor of SC Media UK, Infosecurity Magazine and IT Security Guru. He was also an analyst with 451 Research and a product marketing lead at Tenable.
