HOSTED NEWS
Skinners' Kent Academy and Skinners' Kent Primary School have been forced to close after hackers broke into their servers stealing data and encrypting pupil information.
Officials at he schools said “they cannot be sure” exactly what information hackers have accessed.
Parents have been urged to contact their banks to let them know that personal information has been compromised.
An investigation is currently underway with the involvement of both Action Fraud and the National Cyber Security Centre. It does appear that the School Information Management System, which is where personal records for pupils, students and staff are held has not been accessed. This data has however been encrypted which would make it almost impossible to get back.
The decision to close the schools on Monday was based on the vital emergency contact information on the pupils no longer being accessible.
A spokeswoman from the trust described the hackers as "sophisticated" and also added "The trust is working incredibly hard to ensure that our students and pupils are back in our schools.....as soon as it is possible to do so."
