West Lothian Council schools hit by cyber-attack

West Lothian Council’s education network has been targeted by a suspected ransomware cyber-attack.

A council spokesperson said contingency plans are in place to keep schools open with “minimal disruption until the issue is resolved”.

There is “no evidence” that sensitive or personal data has been accessed by the criminals, they added.

The incident is under a live ongoing criminal investigation and the council is working with the Scottish Government, Police Scotland and other relevant agencies.  

 The spokesperson said: “Contingency plans are in place to ensure our schools can operate with minimal disruption until this issue is resolved. All West Lothian Council schools will be open as normal this week, and SQA examinations will not be affected.

“There is no evidence at this time, that the council's corporate and public access networks are affected by the attack.”

They added: “The education network remains isolated from the rest of the council’s networks, while our IT services team and external organisations and agencies investigate the issue and work to restore systems.

“We are very grateful for all the support we have received from various organisations and agencies during this challenging time."

In a post on LinkedIn, the Cyber and Fraud Centre Scotland said the incident should serve as a “reminder” for organisations to keep cyber defences up to date.

It said: “This should be a reminder to all organisations both large and small that everyone is a target, and no-one is immune to these criminal attacks, and to ensure they are as cyber resilient as possible with technology, training and working with their boards around Incident Response planning.”

The attack follows high-profile cyber-attacks affecting three major British retailers over the past two weeks.

The incidents have caused Marks & Spencer to lose millions in revenue and Co-op has said a “significant” amount of customer data has been accessed by hackers.

Harrods has yet not revealed what the scale of the impact on its network was.