EA making 'good progress' to restore school IT systems after cyber attack

The Education Authority (EA) says it is continuing to "make good progress" to restore the IT systems used by schools in Northern Ireland after a cyber attack on Thursday.

All online and IT systems in schools are provided through the C2K network, managed by the EA.

The attack left all schools and pupils being unable to log into their accounts, meaning pupils could not log in to get work or resources provided by their teachers in the run up to exam season.

In an update on Sunday, the EA said its teams had been working over the weekend to "restore access to the system safely and securely, starting with post primary schools".

Schools received a message on Thursday that as part of "work to manage an IT security issue" the EA would be carrying out a password reset for all users.

The EA said "immediate steps" were taken to contain the issue and a full investigation is underway.

Following the attack, the EA said a full password reset was carried out across the school network as a "critical security measure".

It has not yet confirmed whether any personal data was affected by the breach.

The education body is also engaging with the Information Commissioner's Office and relevant authorities as part of its response.

The principal of Sullivan Upper in Holywood, County Down, told parents in an email that the school had managed to regain access for senior teaching and non-teaching staff on Sunday morning.

Craig Mairs said the school had been advised by the EA that each pupil and staff password will have to be reset individually.

He described it as a "very significant task" and said it would be done by year groups.

Mairs said the school will open on Easter Monday for pupils in Years 11-14 who have exams coming up.

He said staff will be on site between 09:30 and 11:30 BST on Monday to help students wishing to reset passwords before the new terms starts.

The school said that passwords for pupils in Years 8 -10 will be reset after the Easter break.

Following the breach, the principal of Methodist College in Belfast (MCB) expressed concern that pupils would not be able to access what they need online to maximise their revision time over the school holidays.

More than 800 pupils at the grammar school are due to sit GCSE, AS and A-Level exams a few weeks after the Easter break.

School principal Jenny Lendrum said so much of the work pupils need to carry out is done through the C2K system to access work and other information.

Kian Hawes, a pupil at Lumen Christi College in Londonderry, said many students usually use the Easter break to catch up on revision and that his teachers had been encouraging them to do so.

The 14-year-old, who is also the education officer for the Secondary Students Union of Northern Ireland, said the issue with C2K had hindered students ability to revise.

The chair of Stormont's education committee, Nick Mathison, said the priority for MLAs and the EA was to establish if there had been a data breach.

He said it was "vital that those potentially impacted are communicated with quickly and if there is advice around data security that is needed, that that is provided without any delay".