'How am I going to pass my O-Levels': Students lose notes due to Mobile Guardian hack
Students across 26 schools in Singapore affected by Mobile Guardian hack. Ministry of Education takes steps to address cybersecurity breach. Students resort to personal devices as schools navigate data loss challenges.
With exams looming, including her elementary mathematics and English language papers, she expressed her distress, "How am I going to do my exams? And how am I going to pass my O-Levels in two months?"
The Ministry of Education (MOE) revealed a global cybersecurity breach affecting 13,000 secondary school students from 26 schools in Singapore. The breach led to a hacker remotely wiping devices using the Mobile Guardian application, prompting MOE to remove the app from all personal learning devices to mitigate risks.
Students at Methodist Girls’ School (MGS) and Raffles Girls School (RGS) encountered issues last week, with some unable to access the internet on their iPads, resulting in factory resets and data loss. Esther shared her disappointment, "It’s very saddening to see a lot of my classmates and even myself lose four years' worth of notes, thrown down the drain like that and just all gone in an instant. We didn’t even know that this was going to happen, so it just caught us all off guard,"
Hailey from RGS also experienced difficulties when half of her applications disappeared, affecting her notes and homework. Despite the stress, she was able to recover her data via iCloud backup. Similarly, Ms Karen Goh's daughter at MGS experienced data loss but was able to recover most notes using iCloud backup, expressing relief among the pandemonium.
Affected pupils have resorted to utilising personal gadgets in class as the MOE attempts to restore normalcy and regulate device usage. Mitchell of Riverside Secondary School regretted the loss of valuable annotations and notes, underlining the disadvantage experienced by students studying for exams.
Students at Dunman High School reported Chromebook troubles as a result of Mobile Guardian, which impacted project submissions. While the app will be uninstalled, challenges will remain. Pearlyn acknowledged the inconveniences experienced by peers, but remained positive about receiving notes through alternative means.
Students across 26 schools in Singapore affected by Mobile Guardian hack
Ministry of Education takes steps to address cybersecurity breach
Students resort to personal devices as schools navigate data loss challenges
Source: CNA