Public Technology reports:
The UK’s data-protection watchdog has warned of a growing trend of cyberattacks on schools being perpetrated by pupils.
The Information Commissioner’s Office recently analysed the details of 215 data breaches that took place across the education sector between January 2022 and August 2024 and were classified as “insider attacks”.
Almost three in five of these incidents – 128 breaches – were perpetrated by children attending the school or college. Students were, in particular, almost entirely responsible for the 30% of attacks that relied on stolen login details.
Incidents analysed by the data regulator included three year-11 students accessing their school’s databases because they were “interested in IT and cyber security and… wanted to test their skills and knowledge”. In another case – which was reported to the ICO and the police – a student used a staff login as part of a breach in which they “viewed, amended or deleted personal information belonging to more than 9,000 staff, students and applicants”.
Read more at Public Technology.
