CYBER criminals are finding ways to hold academy schools to ransom, an expert has warned.

Michaela Johns, director of Chandlers Ford-based chartered accountancy firm HWB, said some schools were keeping quiet about their experience of ransomware attacks.

She works as an external auditor with academies and independent schools in Hampshire, Dorset and Wiltshire.

She said: “When a school is targeted with a ransomware attack they are often embarrassed and want to keep it quiet. The government’s Education and Skills Funding Agency is urging schools to let them know when attacks occur so they can build a clearer picture of how many schools are being targeted nationally.”

Academies are funded directly by government rather than local authorities and are free to control their own finances.

The boards of individual schools will decide what action to take when they are targeted and whether to pay to get the online information returned.

Ms Johns told of one school that had not been backing up all its information.

“All the areas involving financial aspects were fine but their whole marketing database, including photos of children, was targeted by a ransomware attack,” she said.

“Given the sensitive nature of the content, the school felt they had no choice but to pay around £8,000 to get the marketing content returned.”

The National Cyber Security Centre has been investigating an increase in ransomware attacks on the UK education centre, following similar rises last August-September and in February this year.

Her warning was echoed by Fareham-based outsourced IT support specialist Interpro Technology Solutions, which has 200 clients.

Its managing director, Mark Abrams, said: “It is absolutely vital that organisations ensure that they protect against hacks, phishing exercises and social engineering attacks by securing their networks with the latest tools and ensuring that extra measures such as multi-factor authentication and conditional access are implemented.

“Staff should be trained in information security, and detailed backup and business continuity plans, which should be regularly tested and reviewed that cover both local and cloud-based data, are also key to protecting assets.”

HWB holds information seminars for academy trusts throughout the year.|