Hackers hold Blackpool academies and primary schools to ransom after cyber attack

The cyber attack struck Fylde Coast Academy Trust on Monday morning, infecting its IT network and leaving schools with limited access to its systems.

The hackers have reportedly demanded a substantial sum of money and are threatening to permanently block access to FCATs systems until they are paid.

With limited access to computers, laptops, printers and even photocopiers, academies are having to return to pen and paper for many routine tasks, including paper registers and teaching from textbooks.

The cyber attack has affected all 10 of the Trust’s academies - including Blackpool’s Armfield, Aspire, Montgomery and Unity high schools and Gateway, Mereside, Westcliff and Westminster primary schools.

Hambleton Primary Academy and Garstang Community Academy are also affected.

Dean Logan, CEO of FCAT, says the Trust is being supported by the government’s Department of Education and has also sought the help of Cyber Clan - a Canadian firm who provide IT support to businesses under attack.

But Mr Logan says it could be days or even weeks before its systems are fully restored. He did not say whether the attack has led to any safeguarding leaks or breaches of GDPR.

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The Trust’s CEO, Dean Logan, said: “Unfortunately Fylde Coast Academy Trust has been affected by threat actors' ransomware, this has infected the organisation's IT infrastructure and resulted in limited accessibility to IT systems.

“Within hours of the attack, the trust was in receipt of support from the government‘s risk protection arrangements and a Cyber Security team was engaged to support the trust recovery plan.

“It will take a number of days before services start to be restored and the full impact is understood.

“During this time we reverted to non-IT based processes to meet statutory and regulatory duties and quickly acted to mitigate the reduced functionality in classrooms with the use of mobile networks.

“Our focus remains in providing the highest possible care and education for pupils during this recovery.

“Leaders, teachers, support staff and pupils have responded very positively and with resilience.”

He added: “The skills and knowledge learnt during the Covid 19 pandemic have provided reassurance and confidence in dealing with this challenge.

“Where communication systems have been impaired we would ask for your patience and support until systems recover.

“Telephone lines were quickly reestablished for example, though with reduced capacity. We'd ask parents and carers to contact school only when necessary until further phone lines are reintroduced.

“We will keep all stakeholders updated as systems are restored, priority will be given to core services first. Advice and guidance is being provided and shared with staff, pupils and parents/carers actively as we receive it.

“We expect to see restoration of key services start next week. However full restoration will take a number of weeks to ensure the ransomware is completely removed.

“We are very grateful to the support being received, the offers of support from the local authority, other school trusts as well as our school communities who are all pulling together to beat this challenge.”