Bourne Academy was victim of cyber attack
Computer systems at a town school were hacked during the Easter holidays.
Headteacher Lucy Conley wrote to parents on Monday this week to explain what had happened at Bourne Academy and three partner schools in south Lincolnshire.
In the email she said: “We discovered that we had fallen victim to a cyber attack after certain machines on our network showed evidence of malicious encryption,” adding that the schools’ incident response plan was activated immediately and external cyber security experts were consulted.
“We have since been working hard over the Easter break to secure our networks and restore our systems,”
she said.
“We have been able to identify a number of available backups and are in the process of recovering our systems and data.”
Police and the Department for Education have been notified and the schools reopened as planned on Tuesday (April 19).
“Unfortunately, cyber-criminals are targeting academic institutions with increasing regularity and we understand that
we are one of a significant number of educational establishments to have been attacked in recent times,” said Mrs Conley.
Stamford Welland Academy and Bluecoat Primary School in Stamford, which are in a different group of schools, fell victim to a ransomware cyber attack this time last year.
Lincolnshire County Council has also been targeted by cyber attackers in the past.
Mrs Conley has said the source of the latest
attack continues to be investigated and said she was hopeful of data being fully restored.
She added: “Although this has been a complicated matter that we would rather have not experienced, I am extremely satisfied with and grateful for how staff at the school and the external experts have worked together.”