Hundreds of laptops cleaned after attack
CYBER EXPERTS ARE DIGITALLY RESETTING THE PUPILS’ DEVICES
LAPTOPS belonging to hundreds of pupils at a secondary school are being digitally cleaned after a “sophisticated” cyber attack.
Every laptop owned by the 470 pupils at the Melton Vale Sixth Form College in Melton is being checked after the online attack last Wednesday.
Melton Vale was one of 15 schools and education centres which are part of the Nova Education Trust that has been targeted.
The attack caused the schools to have no access to “usual modes of communication”, such as e-mail, phones and their websites.
The Nova Education Trust brought in “cyber experts” to help analyse the incident.
A Trust spokesperson said: “Following last week’s cyber attack, Nova Education Trust is continuing with its IT recovery and restore operation in conjunction with the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) and the National Crime Agency. As a result of the attack, every device in every school needs to be digitally ‘cleaned’ and reset prior to staff and student use.
“The IT team and other staff from trust central services worked throughout the weekend to ensure as smooth a start as possible for all our students and staff this week.
“The trust was delighted to welcome all of its primary school pupils and staff back into school this week.
“Secondary schools will be prioritising their Covid-19 lateral flow testing programmes to ensure students can safely return to the classroom, which will also provide the IT team with additional time to ensure that IT provision is in place for when classroom lessons resume later this week.
“The trust would like to reiterate its sincere thanks to all staff, students and parents for their patience at this time.”