Students at London-based Harris Federation schools have been cut off from their email accounts after the trust became the latest educational institution to fall victim to a ransomware attack.
The incident, which took place over the weekend, comes just days after the University of Northampton fell victim to a cyber attack and follows a worrying trend of hackers targeting educational institutions and disrupting student learning, which has already been heavily affected by the coronavirus pandemic.
The Harris Federation has been forced to “temporarily” disable its email systems and devices of all of the 50 primary and secondary academies that it manages, leaving 37,000 students unable to access their correspondence and coursework.
The academy trust said that the steps were necessary to mitigate the impact of a ransomware attack that encrypted the data on the schools’ IT systems.
It also added that it is “using the services of a specialised firm of cyber technology consultants” as well as “working closely with the National Crime Agency and the National Cyber Security Centre”. Details of the ransom are not publicly available and the trust was not immediately available for additional comment.
In the past five weeks alone, hackers have targeted the University of Northampton as well as Oxford University’s Division of Structural Biology. The recent increase in cyber attacks on educational institutions has prompted the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) to issue an alert urging organisations to follow its guidance on ‘Mitigating malware and ransomware.’
NCSC director of operations Paul Chichester labelled the targeting of the education sector by cyber criminals as “completely unacceptable”.
“This is a growing threat and we strongly encourage schools, colleges, and universities to act on our guidance and help ensure their students can continue their education uninterrupted.
“We are committed to ensuring the UK education sector is resilient against cyber threats, and have published practical resources to help establishments improve their cyber security and response to cyber incidents.”
Commenting on the Harris Federation ransomware attack, Ilia Kolochenko, CEO of security company ImmuniWeb said that, “unlike large universities, which can afford spending considerable budgets on cybersecurity, primary schools often struggle to get budgets even for the very foundational security controls, let alone advance cyber defense solutions”.
“Worse, such victims commonly have no choice but to pay the ransom from modest school funds, leaving no money for other activities,” he added.
Kolochenko urged the UK government to "urgently intervene with cyber training, financial and technical support in the UK educational sector”.
“For example, when buying security software, a volume-discount for all schools in the UK could be huge and make even premium security products affordable. Importantly, cyber police units are also deprived of sufficient funding proportional to surging and sophisticated cybercrime.
"Law enforcement agencies require undelayed financial support to attract new professionals, align forensic capacities with modern cyber threats and perform educational support and awareness among future victims.”
-
Using DeepSeek at work is like ‘printing out and handing over your confidential information’News Thinking of using DeepSeek at work? Think again. Cybersecurity experts have warned you're putting your enterprise at huge risk.
-
Can cyber group takedowns last?ITPro Podcast Threat groups can recover from website takeovers or rebrand for new activity – but each successful sting provides researchers with valuable data
-
Average ransom payment doubles in a single quarterNews Targeted social engineering and data exfiltration have become the biggest tactics as three major ransomware groups dominate
-
BlackSuit ransomware gang taken down in latest law enforcement sting – but members have already formed a new groupNews The notorious gang has seen its servers taken down and bitcoin seized, but may have morphed into a new group called Chaos
-
Google cyber researchers were tracking the ShinyHunters group’s Salesforce attacks – then realized they’d also fallen victimNews In an update to an investigation on the ShinyHunters group, Google revealed it had also been affected
-
Nearly one-third of ransomware victims are hit multiple times, even after paying hackersNews Many ransomware victims are being hit more than once, largely thanks to fragmented security tactics
-
75% of UK business leaders are willing to risk criminal penalties to pay ransomsNews A ransom payment ban is a great idea - until you're the one being targeted...
-
The Scattered Spider ransomware group is infiltrating Slack and Microsoft Teams to target vulnerable employeesNews The group is using new ransomware variants and new social engineering techniques - including sneaking into corporate teleconferences
-
Hackers breached a 158 year old company by guessing an employee password – experts say it’s a ‘pertinent reminder’ of the devastating impact of cyber crimeNews A Panorama documentary exposed hackers' techniques and talked to the teams trying to tackle them
-
The ransomware boom shows no signs of letting up – and these groups are causing the most chaos
News Thousands of ransomware cases have already been posted on the dark web this year
