UK education charity Harris Federation takes down IT systems and email servers after being hit by ransomware attack on Saturday.
UK education charity Harris Federation takes down IT systems and email servers after being hit by ransomware attack on Saturday.
Harris Federation is a multi-academy trust of 50 primary and secondary academies in and around London, educating more than 36,000 students.
The cyberattack came to the limelight on Saturday, March 27. According to the statement, cyber-criminals have accessed the IT systems and encrypted their contents.
Soon after the attack was detected, the organisation disabled both the email and landline phone systems, with all the phone calls being redirected to mobile phones.
Devices given to students by the Harris Federation were disabled to stop the ransomware from spreading.
“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," reads a statement on the trust's site.
“We are at least the fourth multi-academy trust to have been targeted in March," Harris Federation also said, highlighting the escalating number of UK schools getting hit in similar attacks.
To further investigate the incident, Harris Foundation is currently working with the National Crime Agency, the National Cyber Security Centre and a cybersecurity firm to investigate the incident.
The school trust will endeavour to keep Harris academies open until the end of the current term on Wednesday, March 31.
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