A cyber-attack on Mobile Guardian leaves 13,000 Singapore’s students had their data remotely wiped.
Several Singaporean schools alerted the ministry on August 4 that some students who use iPads or Chromebooks as personal learning devices were unable to access their applications and information stored in their devices.
Upon investigation, it’s been detected that the security incident has came from unauthorized access to Mobile Guardian, an application widely used in the country’s schools since 2020 that offers device management, classroom management, web filtering for students and parental controls.
Mobile Guardian acknowledges that it had experienced “a security incident that resulted in a small percentage of devices to be unenrolled from [its platform] and their devices wiped remotely.”
This attack affected users globally, including in North America, Europe, and Singapore, and it also confirmed that no data pertaining to users were accessed
Mobile Guardian has halted its services to prevent further unauthorized access, meaning that users are not currently able to log in to the Mobile Guardian platform, and students will experience restricted access on their devices.
Singapore’s government said it will remove the Mobile Guardian app from all iPads and Chromebooks and is considering additional mitigation measures.
It is also working on safely restoring wiped devices to normal usage.
Mobile Guardian invited students experiencing issues with their device to contact their customer support service at support@mobileguardian.com.
