App managing students' personal learning devices at 127 schools hacked, names, e-mail addresses leaked: MOE

Source: The Straits Times
Author: Lok Jian Wen

SINGAPORE - The names and e-mail addresses of 127 primary and secondary schools were leaked after a mobile platform on students' personal devices was hacked, said the Ministry of Education (MOE) on April 19.

The information breach concerned the Mobile Guardian app, which is installed on students' personal learning devices, including Chromebook laptops and Apple's iPad tablets, to help parents manage students' device use and restrict specific websites, apps and screen time on those devices.

Mobile Guardian's user management portal was compromised at its headquarters by an incident of unauthorised access which led to the leak of names and e-mail addresses of parents from five primary schools and 122 secondary schools, said MOE in a release on its website. The figure means around a third of all primary and secondary schools in Singapore were affected by this leak.

The parents and teachers whose personal information may have been leaked will be notified, said MOE. They will also be advised to remain vigilant of any phishing e-mails that may be sent to them.

MOE added it was notified by Mobile Guardian about the leak on April 17, leading to the ministry lodging a police report and expressing its concerns to the device management software company.

Mobile Guardian, headquartered in Surrey, Britain, but with offices in the US and South Africa, has locked down its administrative accounts and is conducting investigations to find out how the leak may have occurred.

The mobile device management software company was appointed as MOE's official mobile device management services vendor in November 2020.

MOE said its own device management platform was not compromised and remains available for parents' use on their wards' ChromeOS or iOS learning devices.