New South Wales (NSW) Department of Education IT systems are coming back online two days after they were crippled by a cyber attack as teachers in the Australian state prepared for online classes amid the Greater Sydney lockdown.
A number of internal systems were deactivated late on Wednesday to protect student and staff data after officials detected the attack.
It came just hours after NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian announced schools in Greater Sydney would move to online learning for the first week of Term 3, which starts on Tuesday.
Teachers will be relieved to hear @NSWEducation systems are coming back online following a cyber-attack. A huge thank you to the teams who worked around the clock for this result.
— Sarah Mitchell (@smitchellmlc) July 9, 2021
NSW Education Minister Sarah Mitchell on Saturday thanked staff for their patience, saying systems would begin to come back online over the next 24 hours.
“I know the timing of this attack has been challenging for our principals, teachers, and administrative staff,” Mitchell said.
“(They) will be relieved to hear NSW Department of Education systems are coming back online … a huge thank you to the teams who worked around the clock for this result,” she wrote on Twitter.
The restoration of emails, Zoom, Microsoft Office, and Google classroom is being prioritised to allow staff to continue to prepare for classes.
Cyber Security NSW is investigating the attack, with the matter also referred to NSW Police and federal agencies.
By Tiffanie Turnbull
