IT systems at around 330 schools were hacked last year — and experts warn sensitive child information and pictures may have been sold online to paedos.
Pupil images and contact details were potentially accessed, along with records on vulnerable kids.
A report by the Information Commissioner’s Office — seen by The Sun — has found 3,000 UK groups fell victim to hacking last year
And 11 per cent of those attacks were on education authorities, much more than previously feared.
Sources say schools are targeted as a lack of investment in IT and cyber security has left them vulnerable.
In some cases, passwords were easily guessed, leaving networks exposed.
Experts also warn that squeezed budgets mean schools often rely on donated computers with old security software, while heads of IT are shared.
Stephen Bonner, the ICO’s deputy commissioner of regulatory supervision, said: “While cyber attacks are growing more sophisticated, we find that many organisations are not responding accordingly and are still neglecting the very foundations of cyber security.”
Cyber expert professor Alan Woodward, at the University of Surrey, said: “These hackers chiefly do it to make money, which leads to grim thoughts of where are they going to make money from data on children.
“I’m afraid to say that, ultimately, that data is of value on the dark web and that’s how they monetise it.”
He added: “Schools do a lot teaching children about how to keep themselves safe online — a cyber equivalent of don’t talk to strangers.
“But they risk failing to safeguard the children if they don’t heed their own lessons.”
A Department for Education spokesman said it provides a range of cyber security support, and insisted school funding was at its “highest ever level in real terms per pupil”.
Keeping children safe in education 2023
THE Department of Education has guidelines in place for safeguarding in schools.
The statutory guidance for schools and colleges states in point 144:
Education settings are directly responsible for ensuring they have the appropriate level of security protection procedures in place in order to safeguard their systems, staff and learners and review the effectiveness of these procedures periodically to keep up with evolving cyber-crime technologies.
Guidance on e-security is available from the National Education Network.
In addition, schools and colleges should consider meeting the Cyber security standards for schools and colleges.
Broader guidance on cyber security including considerations for governors and trustees can be found at Cyber security training for school staff – NCSC.GOV.UK.
As per gov.uk