One of the country’s largest academy chains has fallen victim to a “ransomware” cyber attack, the BBC reports.
The Harris Federation, which runs 50 primary and secondary academies in and around London, said data on its systems has been encrypted and hidden by the attackers, and the trust had disabled email as it dealt with the situation.
The attack comes shortly after the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) issued a warning that hackers are targeting schools.
“We are at least the fourth multi-academy trust to have been targeted in March,” a statement on the Harris Federation website said.
“This is a highly sophisticated attack that will have a significant impact on our academies but it will take time to uncover the exact details of what has or has not happened, and to resolve.
“As a precaution, we have temporarily disabled our email system.”
