Schools operate in a world where parents don’t sign physical sick letters or have mailed report cards, but if this digital system is held to ransom, students’ grades and even university entry could be at risk, writes Rosie Beacon.
It is a rule in politics almost as old as time that when a threat does not feel immediate or tangible, it is consistently deprioritised in the cut and thrust of politics, but then quickly sees a climax when a threat does materialise. By this point, it is usually too late. We saw it with pandemic preparedness. Cybersecurity is in the early stages of a similar reckoning.
I recently discovered that my old school had been struck by a ransomware attack. And for the entirety of the first academic term, the school systems were essentially paralysed by a hack to the school infrastructure.
