Primary school hit by targeted cyber-attack

A primary school has been hit by a targeted cyber-attack, a council says.

Bristol City Council said records at Southville Primary School were exported from its management information system during the attack.

The council said it believed the attack was "carried out by the same criminals" who targeted its system used to manage the schools it runs last month, but added that had not been confirmed.

The school has told parents and carers affected and the breach had been reported to the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO).

An investigation by the council, specialist cyber security experts and the Regional Organised Crime Unit has been launched to establish the full circumstances of the attack.

They are investigating both incidents and exploring any potential connections between them.

The council said there was no evidence of a mass export of data from its Schools IT network.

Councillor Christine Townsend, chair of Bristol City Council's children and young people committee, said: "The incident affecting Southville Primary School's management information system is the subject of a separate investigation."

"Our priority remains supporting schools, protecting children and families, restoring services safely and securely, and ensuring schools have the information and assistance they need," she added.

Townsend said last month's cyber-attack saw council officers disconnect 88 schools' internet access to "contain the threat, protect school systems and reduce the risk of harm".

As of Wednesday, 84 of the 88 affected schools in last month's attack had resumed limited internet access, including all 39 schools directly supported by the council's IT service.

Work continues with the remaining schools to complete the necessary checks before reconnection.

John Curry, reader in cyber security at Bath Spa University, said the two cyber-attacks being connected was "curious" and he questioned why hackers seemed to be "targeting Bristol".

"Once they get into one school, they will try and pivot to get into the next one," he said.

"If you have all the information about a school, you can then email another school using some of the information, pretending to be [a headteacher] from another school," he added.

Curry said he was concerned about criminals using artificial intelligence (AI) for hacking, and suggested some schools may need to invest more in cyber security.

"There is an arms race going on out there about hackers using AI to get into systems and defenders like me who use AI to try and stop them," he said.

"Most of the time the defenders win... but hackers only need to get lucky once, and that's what's happened this time," Curry added.

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