The Education Authority (EA) reported that an IT system called C2K was targeted in a cyber attack. All online and IT systems in schools in Northern Ireland are provided through the C2K network, which is managed by the EA. Pupils across the region were locked out of their accounts due to the IT problems, preventing access to work or revision saved online by teachers.
According to BBC News - Education, an 18-year-old A-level student described feeling worried because he has coursework due soon and relies on Microsoft Teams for efficiency, especially with exams approaching. A 15-year-old GCSE student told BBC News - Education that she was unable to access work needed for her GCSEs, including revision sheets and homework to catch up on missed assignments. A 17-year-old AS-level student said to BBC News - Education that he felt panic when he could not log in to access coursework documents, hoping password resets would resolve the issue.
Some schools in Northern Ireland have opened during the Easter holiday to help pupils affected by IT problems. For example, Regent House school in Newtownards, County Down, opened on Tuesday to help pupils reset their passwords. It remains unknown who conducted the cyber attack on the C2K system, how many schools and pupils in total have been affected, and what specific measures the Education Authority is taking to prevent future attacks.
The timing of the attack and whether any coursework has been permanently lost due to the outage are also unclear.