It’s been confirmed that a ransomware attack on IT systems at Island Education Federation includes six Isle of Wight schools.
As well as Medina College, Carisbrooke College and The Island 6th Form, three primary schools have also been affected by the attack.
Barton Primary, Hunnyhill Primary and Lanesend Primary join the list of schools that can’t access their computer systems.
What is a ransomware attack?
A ransomware is attack is normally initiated by clicking on a malware email which will encrypt the data it can find. Once completed a demand for money is sent to unencrypt the data. Paying for this does not always lead to the data being unencrypted.
Attack happened last week
The Federation’s IT systems were compromised last week (between 28th and 29th July) by a ransomware attack, which has resulted in an encryption of data and is preventing them from gaining access to their systems.
Working with police
A spokesperson for the Isle of Wight Education Federation said,
“We are working with officers from the police Cybercrime Unit to pursue the cyber criminals and understand the full impact of the attack. There are obviously some significant implications of this, which we are managing and will take measures to secure our systems even further in the future.
“We are working with the local Police and Authority, Department for Education, Cyber support and various ICT system providers to move this forward and ensure that necessary and appropriate systems are in place for the new academic year.”
Stakeholders will be contacted about this with updates as and when we are able to provide them.
Image: Philipp Katzenberger under CC BY 2.0
