The IT systems for Island Education Federation (who run Medina and Carisbrooke Colleges, plus VI Form Campus at Nodehill) were compromised last week (between 28th and 29th July) by a ransomware attack.
This attack has resulted in “an encryption of data” say the Federation, and is preventing them from gaining access to 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.
Working police Cybercrime Unit
A spokesperson from 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.”
We’ve asked IWC what “obviously some significant implications of this” means – what’s impacted, but they haven’t been able to answer the questions as yet.
We’ll share more information once we have it.
Image: Dries Augustyns under CC BY 2.0
