New South Wales Department of Education announced it had fallen victim to a cybersecurity attack today. The state department, after having taken some of its systems offline in response to the hacking attempt, is now rallying its forces to get back online in time for the beginning of term.
The timing of the attacks couldn't have been worse, as Georgina Harrisson, the NSW Education Secretary said in a statement, it "creates considerable challenges for staff as we prepare for the start of Term 3," (via ZDNet). The hope is that working together with Cyber Security NSW will mean normal access should resume swiftly, before everything starts back up.
The department's initial reaction to isolate the issues appears to have been a success, but these kinds of attacks are only likely to grow in number over the years. As our world becomes ever more reliant on technology and the web, cybercrime becomes more sophisticated and determined by the day. There's no word so far on what kind of data they were after, or exactly how much has fallen into the hands of the attackers.
Harrison notes that, of course, the safety and security of its student and staff data is priority. As such, they're looking to find a rapid solution, and police as well as federal agencies have been notified.
It's a sad day when hackers target the vulnerable among us, and another good reason to make sure you're up to date with your cybersecurity knowledge. I mean, for goodness sake, think of the children.
Gloss