The names and contact details of thousands of school leaders, university staff and government officials have been leaked after a hacking event at the Department for Education (DfE).
The Government confirmed the two portals affected were the DfE Help Desk Self-Service Portal and the Turing Scheme Portal, which include “top-level contact details”.
The DfE said it is fixing both portals and has “switched to telephone contact while [the] work is completed urgently”.
It said it has also reported the incident to the Information Commissioner's Office.
According to the Independent, online thieves reportedly stole 607,000 records in the attack, including full names, job titles and email addresses of people who have engaged with the department.
However, DfE sources told InfoGov that the data protection risk to those affected is “not considered high” - adding that the breached general helpdesk data includes “different sets of data which cannot be connected”.
Dark web posts seen by The Times reportedly show a cybercriminal group called ‘ExfilSquad’ claiming responsibility for the breach.
A Department for Education spokesperson said: "We have robust processes in place to protect information and took swift action to contain this incident.
"The information involved is limited to customer service contact details relating to individuals and organisations. No other data has been accessed.
"We continue to work closely with the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) and the National Crime Agency.”
The NCSC has published guidance on helping organisations recover from cyber-attacks.
