Essex primary school hit by cyber-attack which causes delay in reopening.
An Essex primary school has been hit by a cyber-attack which has caused reopening to be delayed.
The IT systems at Canvey Infant School were hit, leaving teachers unable to access resources stored on the school system, according to local reports. This has led to parents being told that the school will not be able to open for pupils next week, and children must stay home an extra day.
The headteacher said the school had taken all of the precautionary security measures to deal with any such cyber threat, but it was working to restore services. A spokesman for Essex County Council said it was are aware of a cybersecurity incident affecting Canvey Infant School, and is supporting the school as required.
Mark Robertson, CRO of Acumen Cyber, said this is one of the most devastating outcomes of a cyber-attack, as school pupils are suffering the consequences with their education being delayed.
“It hasn't been revealed what type of attack the school is facing but given its IT systems have been compromised by attackers, this suggests it could be ransomware,” he said. “This means the school will potentially need to rebuild its data from scratch and it could mean sensitive information has ended up in the hands of cyber-criminals. It's highly unlikely the school will pay a ransom demand given the UK government's position on the issue.”
Dedicating Resources
Robertson called on the education sector to respond to this increased threat by dedicating more resources to protect their assets and networks, but most schools don't have budgets to do this internally and the threat is compounded by the fact that security practices like MFA are difficult to adopt effectively in schools, especially for pupils.
“The best solution is, therefore, to outsource security to dedicated cyber service providers, who can provide enterprise-level protection to schools at affordable prices,” he said. “This significantly boosts the security of schools without overstretching budgets or resources."
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.
