Hackers carry out major attack on two Sussex schools - here's all you need to know

On Thursday (March 9) the website and phonelines of two schools in Chichester, Bishop Luffa and Rumboldswhyke Primary School, were taken down in an apparent hacking incident.

Chichester's Bishop Luffa school digital systems and phone lines are down

This newspaper obtained an email to parents and guardians which said a ‘computer virus’ was to blame for an outage to the school email and phone system.

'Computer virus' to blame for huge system failure at Chichester school

Days later the headteacher of Bishop Luffa and CEO of the school’s academy, Austen Hindman, issued a statement confirming that hackers were holding a huge amount of sensitive data to ransom and said the school was not in a position to pay.

He said: “As a school we do not have the financial means to pay a ransom. Even if we did, it would be a poor lesson to our students if we gave in to bullying. It is hard to understand why someone would choose to steal from and vandalise a school and use information about children for financial gain.

“The Bishop Luffa community has been amazing in its support. We have been inundated with offers of help and with personal experiences of attacks like this that we can learn from. I would like to thank everyone who is praying for us at this time. Rumboldswhyke School is also affected by the attack, although more of their data is stored on cloud/based systems and so hopefully unaffected.”

Hackers threaten to release sensitive information from Chichester schools following ransomware attack

A specialist cyber crime unit is investigating the incident and is in regular contact with the school’s management.

A spokesperson for Sussex Police said in a statement: “Sussex Police received reports of two schools in Chichester being targeted by ransomware attacks on Thursday (9 March). An investigation is ongoing, led by Surrey and Sussex’s specialist Cyber Crime Team, to establish the scale of the attack and identify any perpetrators. The force remain in contact with both affected schools.”

Specialist cyber crime team investigates major Chichester school ransomware attack

According to sources, the group of hackers is demanding $100,000 for the safe return of hundreds of documents including the personal data of students and staff as well as exam papers, HR files and more.

The school has been given a deadline to pay the ransom, sources say, and have the option to pay $10,000 extend that deadline by just 24 hours.

Chichester school hacking: $100,000 sought for release of children's addresses, exam papers and HR files, sources say

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