Security News > 2021 > March > Harris Federation hit by ransomware attack affecting 50 schools
The IT systems and email servers of London-based nonprofit multi-academy trust Harris Federation were taken down by a ransomware attack on Saturday.
Harris Federation is an education charity running 50 Harris primary and secondary academies with 37,000 students from London and surrounding areas.
The attack hit the school trust's systems over the weekend on Saturday, March 27, and led to the compromise and encryption of Harris Federation's IT systems.
Students' devices provided by Harris Federation have also been disabled to block the ransomware from spreading.
"We are at least the fourth multi-academy trust to have been targeted in March," Harris Federation also said, highlighting the escalating number of UK schools getting hit in similar attacks.
The attack follows an updated alert from the UK's National Cyber Security Centre issued on March 23 warning of an increase in targeted ransomware attacks against education institutions since late February.
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