Students acting maliciously - often for fun - are increasingly the cause of cyber attacks affecting schools and colleges in the UK, according to new data from the Information Commissioner's Office, which today warned that the culprits may be setting themselves up for a life of cyber crime.
Since 2022, the ICO has investigated 215 hacks and breaches in education settings and says 57% were carried out by children. According to the new data, almost a third of the breaches involved students illegally logging into staff computer systems by guessing passwords or stealing details from teachers. In one incident, a seven-year-old was involved in a data breach and subsequently referred to the National Crime Agency's Cyber Choices programme to help them understand the seriousness of their actions.
A US court sentenced a former developer at power management biz Eaton to four years in prison after he installed malware on the company's servers. Davis Lu, 55, spent a dozen years at Eaton and rose to become a senior developer of emerging technology, before the company demoted him after restructuring. Lu unwisely responded to that setback by installing a "kill switch" that would activate if the company revoked his network access.
The RN accessed medical records for reasons unrelated to patient care while on a leave of absence, highlighting serious weaknesses in privacy protections.
