Years of notes wiped from students' devices ahead of exams due to major cyberattack

[Marshy]

 

 

It’s not every day that a digital detox leaves one feeling anything but refreshed. But for thousands of Singaporean secondary students, the recent wipeout of their Apple iPads and Google Chromebooks was more panic-ridden than a mere spring clean.

 

Singapore’s schools have promptly removed the Mobile Guardian app from personal learning devices, following a cyberattack that remotely wiped the slate clean for 13,000 students across 26 schools, erasing years of digital notes and leaving many in a dilemma.

 

‘Esther’ (not her real name) found herself in a panic when she opened her school-issued iPad on a Sunday night. Her well-compiled notes from four years of secondary school had vanished. With preliminary exams looming and the national O-Levels just a couple of months away, Esther voiced her distress to Channel News Asia: “How am I going to do my exams? And how am I going to pass my O-Levels in two months?”

 

On August 4, unauthorized access to the UK-based Mobile Guardian—a popular mobile device management vendor used by parents to oversee their children’s digital activities—led to a remote wipe of iOS and ChromeOS devices under its management. The impact reverberated worldwide, but Singapore felt the sting acutely with 13,000 devices affected.

 

In response to the security breach, Singapore’s Ministry of Education (MOE), a major client of the app since 2020, swiftly cut access to Mobile Guardian. The ministry announced plans to remove the app from all student iPads and Chromebooks, working to restore normal device functionality. It’s also deployed additional “roving” IT teams to support schools and students during this challenging time, and is considering additional measures to regulate device usage during this transitional period.

 

The fallout from this digital disaster has left students in a bind. Some, desperate to regain entry into their devices, performed factory resets, unknowingly erasing years of hard work. Esther’s sentiment echoes throughout the affected student body: “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.”

 

As October’s O-Level written exams approach, affected students are left piecing together their study materials. Some cling to fragments saved on Google Docs, while others turn to textbooks and tuition notes. This is the latest example in recent months of how an overreliance on tech can leave users feeling paralyzed after a massive digital outage, with the historic CrowdStrike shutdown being the most notable.

 

• https://www.channelnewsasia.com/singapore/mobile-guardian-application-remove-cybersecurity-incident-moe-4526676 
• https://www.zdnet.com/article/schools-will-remove-app-from-students-chromebooks-and-ipads-following-security-breach/ 
• https://www.asiaone.com/singapore/moe-remove-mobile-guardian-app-students-devices-after-cyber-security-breach 
• https://mothership.sg/2024/08/mobile-guardian-app-removed-devices-wiped-moe/ 

 

 

Image: generated on AI