Infant school hit by cyber-attack

An Essex infant school says its IT system has been compromised after being hit by a cyber attack during the summer holiday.

Canvey Island Infant School – whose pupils are between five and seven years old – has reported the incident to the National Cyber Security Centre.

Its headteacher says it has made the “difficult decision” to close the school for an additional day on Tuesday 3 September.

The cyber attack means teachers have been unable to prepare for the new term as they do not have access to resources on the school’s system.

“While we have taken all of the precautionary security measures to deal with any such cyber threat, this attack has resulted in the school’s IT system being compromised,” headteacher Sandra Dorrington said in a statement.

“Our IT support staff are working hard to resolve the issue and have already made significant progress in restoring systems.”

“However, we have made the difficult decision to close the school for an additional day on Tuesday 3 September,” the statement continued.

“This will enable us to further resolve the issues caused by the attack and allow teaching staff additional time to prepare for their new class, given they do not have access to resources stored on the school system.”

Ms Dorrington said that parents had been contacted directly and would be updated in due course.

“We apologise for the inconvenience this will cause and thank our pupils and their families for their patience and understanding,” Ms Dorrington added.

A message on the school’s website says: “We have no access to emails at the moment” and encourages parents to telephone and leave a voicemail instead.

A spokesperson for Essex County Council said it was “aware of a cyber security incident affecting Canvey Infant School”.

“We are supporting the school as required to minimise the impact on the start of the autumn term,” the spokesperson added.

It is not clear if any information about pupils or staff has been compromised by the attack.

The school was rated as “good” by Ofsted in its last inspection in October 2019, when 177 pupils were listed on the school roll.