Cyberattack hits Northern Ireland’s centralized school network, disrupting access for thousands

A cyberattack on a centralized school IT network in Northern Ireland has disrupted access to educational systems for hundreds of thousands of students, with authorities still working to fully restore services and determine whether any personal data was compromised.

The Education Authority (EA), which oversees school support services in Northern Ireland, said in an official statement it became aware of the incident affecting the “C2K” system last week and took immediate steps to contain the breach, including shutting down access to the system.

The vast majority of schools in the region are connected to C2K, which provides online services including access to teaching materials, assignments, exam revision and communication tools.

There are around 300,000 pupils and 20,000 teachers in Northern Ireland according to official statistics, although there has been no formal confirmation of how many individuals might have been impacted by the incident.

“The investigation is at an early stage and it cannot yet be confirmed if any personal data has been affected,” the EA stated. It said it had launched an investigation with the service provider Capita as well as an incident response company. The nature of the incident has not been disclosed.

Eve Bremner, the EA’s chief education officer, told the BBC on Tuesday: “It was caught early, we've been advised it was contained, we've moved into that recovery phase now. 

“The other thing I think it's important to say is that while it is a live incident, our advice is telling us at the moment that there has been no evidence of data corruption or data leaving the system,” Bremner said.

In its latest update, the authority said it is assisting schools with efforts to reset passwords and restore access to the system, including briefing school leaders on the recovery process, and had begun to get some schools back online.

“We are continuing to make good progress to restore access to the C2K system following the recent cyber attack,” the EA said. “Our teams have been working hard through the weekend to restore access to the system safely and securely, starting with post-primary schools.”

“This work will continue over the coming days, as we move to stand the system back up in all schools as soon as possible. Thank you for your patience and understanding.”

The EA said it was making “good progress” restoring access and was prioritising pupils “at critical points in the academic year,” particularly those due to sit examinations.

In some cases, schools have opened during the holiday period to help students reset passwords and regain access. Officials said work will continue over the coming days to fully restore services, adding that the need to secure the system must be balanced against pressure to bring it back online quickly. 

The EA has apologized for the disruption and said it will continue to provide updates as the situation develops.