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MOE fucked up!!!! students downloaded app which wiped clean their devices!!!!!

Aaron carter

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SINGAPORE – The Mobile Guardian app will be removed from all students’ personal learning devices, after a global cyber-security breach affected 13,000 students from 26 secondary schools in Singapore.


In a statement on Aug 5, the Ministry of Education (MOE) said the app will be removed from all iPads and Chromebooks as a precautionary measure, and that efforts are under way to safely restore these devices for normal use.


Mobile Guardian is a device management app that helps parents manage their children’s device use, restricting screen time and access to specific websites and apps.


MOE said it was alerted by some schools late at night on Aug 4 that some students who use iPads or Chromebooks were unable to access their applications and information stored in their devices.


Investigations by Mobile Guardian found that there was a cyber-security incident involving unauthorised access to its platform that affected customers globally, including those in Singapore, MOE said.


Affected students had their devices remotely wiped due to the breach, MOE said, adding that there is no evidence that the students’ files were accessed.

“We understand that students are naturally concerned and anxious about the incident. MOE is working with schools to support affected students, including deploying additional IT roving teams to schools and providing additional learning resources,” the ministry said.

MOE said the security incident on Aug 4 is separate from technical issues faced by students last week.


The Straits Times reported earlier that more than 1,000 students from at least five MOE secondary schools were affected by a glitch on the Mobile Guardian app.


As early as July 30, some students reported that they could not turn their iPads on or switch them off, while others could not connect to Wi-Fi and received the error message: “Guided Access app unavailable. Please contact your administrator”.


This glitch was due to a human error in configuration by Mobile Guardian, said MOE.


In a statement on its website on Aug 5, Mobile Guardian said that since the security incident, it has “halted servers in order to prevent further disruption by the perpetrator”.


Mobile Guardian said it was alerted to suspicious activity on its platform and detected unauthorised access to its system at 10pm Singapore time on Aug 4.


It is currently investigating the breach that has affected users globally, including the United States, Europe and Singapore.


“This resulted in a small percentage of devices to be unenrolled from Mobile Guardian and their devices wiped remotely,” Mobile Guardian said.


Users should contact their local information technology or IT administrator to reactivate the device, said Mobile Guardian.


This is the second cyber-security incident involving Mobile Guardian in six months.


In April, Mobile Guardian’s user management portal at its headquarters in Surrey, Britain, was hacked, resulting in a data leak involving the names and e-mail addresses of parents and teachers of five primary schools and 122 secondary schools in Singapore.


Parents who spoke to ST after the latest incident said they are at a loss over what to do next, as their children had lost years’ worth of school notes and assignments. Some students also had no warning that their devices were going to be wiped out completely.


For some students, their notes had already been wiped out due to the technical issues that surfaced at the end of July.


One parent, who wanted to be known only as Madam Chan, said her 15-year-old daughter from Raffles Girls’ School (RGS) reported issues with her device as early as July 31. However, there was no update from the school about the exact nature of the problem.


The 59-year-old who works in human resources said the school informed students on Aug 1 that their devices would have to go through a factory reset – a process that clears all data from a device and returns it to its default settings.


“This process led to a few students losing their notes, even though the school said that students should find a solution to back up their notes before the factory reset,” she said.


Many students, including her daughter, were unable to back up their devices due to connectivity issues, and ended up losing some of their notes, she added.


After the end-July incident, some parents, including Madam Chan, said they had planned to go to the Apple Store to get the staff to uninstall the app. Madam Chan said her daughter was afraid to even turn on the device in case she loses more of her notes.


“Many parents like me are frustrated, and we don’t know what to do,” she said. “We are most concerned about our children getting their notes back, as well as all their assignments and digital drawings done over the years.”


Madam Chan added that other parents in the RGS Year 3 parents’ WhatsApp group chat, which has around 290 members, said only 50 appointments were available daily for the school’s IT department. According to them, some students had to wait three to four hours to get help with their devices.


“This situation is very stressful all round,” she said. She added that the situation was different for each student, and there were no clear instructions on what they could do to back up their devices.


Another parent, who wanted to be known only as Mr Alex, said that at St Andrew’s Secondary School, many students took pictures of their documents on their phones to save their notes before visiting the IT department for a factory reset of their devices.


“As a parent, I am very upset as it distracts the boys unnecessarily and could derail their revision for their term-weighted assessment,” said the parent, who is in his 40s and has a son in the school.


“Much of their work is performed on the personal learning device,” he said. “Conversely, I am glad to use it as a learning point to teach my son about the inherent flaw in relying too much on technology.”


Mr Alex said students who have had their notes saved on external sites like Google are safe from these issues, but others would have years of notes wiped out due to the reset.


Another parent, who has a 13-year-old son in Nan Hua High School, said: “Parents are uncertain about how we can help our kids.”


The 52-year-old housewife, who wanted to be known only as Madam Lee, said: “There was a lot of time wasted trying to pinpoint the problem.”


She expressed concerns about whether the removal of Mobile Guardian is a permanent move or temporary solution, and whether children will be able to download other apps freely without supervision in the meantime.


Madam Lee said that her son’s device was affected from July 31, and was due to have it reformatted on Aug 5.


“We are not actually aware if the breach last night caused further damage or didn’t affect the device, since it was already problematic to start with,” she said.


Apart from Mobile Guardian, another device management app that MOE uses is Blocksi, which is headquartered in California in the United States.


ST has contacted the Cyber Security Agency of Singapore and MOE for more information.

https://www.straitstimes.com/singap...l-students-devices-after-cybersecurity-breach
 

A Singaporean

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It's an honest mistake, let's move on. In future go to the Guardian you can trust.

Screenshot_20240805_203141_Google.jpg
 

congo9

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It is time for parents and students to learn taking notes the manual way and also do daily back up to your notes to cloud or other app and platform.
 

Taylorshit

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Mobile Guardian Device Management Application to be Removed from Personal Learning Devices​


Published Date: 05 August 2024 11:00 AM

News Press Releases

On 4 August 2024 late night, the Ministry of Education (MOE) was alerted by schools that some students who use iPads or Chromebooks as personal learning devices were unable to access their applications and information stored in their devices.

2. MOE immediately registered strong concerns with mobile device management company Mobile Guardian. Mobile Guardian’s investigations found that there had been a global cybersecurity incident involving unauthorised access to its platform that affected their customers globally, including those in Singapore. Based on preliminary checks, about 13,000 students in Singapore from 26 secondary schools had their devices wiped remotely by the perpetrator. There is currently no evidence that the perpetrator had accessed user files.

3. This security incident on 4 August is not related to the earlier technical issues faced by students in end July 2024. Mobile Guardian’s investigations have revealed that the July incident, which led to some students across numerous schools experiencing issues connecting to the Internet and/or receiving error messages, was due to a human error in configuration by Mobile Guardian.

4. As a precautionary measure, MOE will remove the Mobile Guardian Device Management Application from all iPads and Chromebooks. Efforts are underway to safely restore these devices to normal usage. MOE is considering other mitigating measures to regulate device usage to support learning during this period.

5. We understand that students are naturally concerned and anxious about the incident. MOE is working with schools to support affected students, including deploying additional IT roving teams to schools and providing additional learning resources.

https://www.moe.gov.sg/news/press-r...-to-be-removed-from-personal-learning-devices
 

sbfuncle

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What's up with all these kan cheong kiasu spider parents? Lost notes and even stop studying for even a few mths doesn't make any difference to their future.
 

Hightech88

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https://www.channelnewsasia.com/sin...nt-notes-gone-o-levels-exams-ipad-app-4528331

'How am I going to pass my O-Levels': Students lose notes due to Mobile Guardian hack

“We didn’t even know that this was going to happen, so it just caught us all off guard,” said one Secondary 4 student who discovered her notes were gone just as she sat down to revise

'How am I going to pass my O-Levels': Students lose notes due to Mobile Guardian hack

Secondary 2 students using their personal learning devices in a mathematics lesson at Jurong West Secondary School. (File photo: CNA/Raydza Rahman)

SINGAPORE: When Esther (not her real name) opened her school-issued iPad on Sunday night (Aug 4) to revise for her preliminary examinations the next day, she was shocked to find out that her notes from the last four years of secondary school were gone.

The Secondary 4 student at Methodist Girls’ School (MGS) was due to sit for her elementary mathematics and English language papers on Monday.

“How am I going to do my exams? And how am I going to pass my O-Levels in two months?” she told CNA on Monday night.

“I have all my notes on my iPad and I cannot memorise them anymore.”

That same morning, the Ministry of Education (MOE) announced that a global cybersecurity breach affected about 13,000 secondary school students from 26 schools in Singapore – they had their devices wiped remotely by a hacker.

MOE said that the Mobile Guardian application would be removed from all students’ personal learning devices. The app enables parents to manage students’ device usage by restricting applications or websites and screen time.

The schools alerted the Education Ministry on Sunday night that some students who use iPads or Chromebooks as personal learning devices could not access their apps and information stored in them.

But issues with some of the devices started last week, students and parents told CNA. At MGS and Raffles Girls School (RGS), some students could not use their iPads to access the internet, and had to factory reset their devices last week, resulting in some students losing their work.

Since the apps were no longer on the devices, they had no way of recovering their notes because they could no longer be backed up, Esther told CNA.

“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,” she said.

“We were just revising and then suddenly the notes were all gone, and we had no way of getting it back. This definitely affected our performance in prelims, especially today.”

Esther is also worried about her performance in the upcoming O-Levels – the written papers start in October. She still has some notes saved on Google Docs, and is relying on her textbooks and tuition notes.

“I don’t really know what MOE is going to do about (the) O-Levels because all our notes are gone. I’m just really worried about my batch and everybody that is taking the O-Levels this year,” she added.

"A BIT STRESSFUL"​

After seeing about one-third of her classmates face issues last week, Hailey (not her real name), a student from RGS, thought the situation seemed “quite serious” and decided to back up everything on her device.

While she was working on her math homework on her iPad on Sunday night, she got booted out of the app her school uses for digital worksheets.

After restarting her device, she realised about half of the apps had disappeared, including the ones she uses for notetaking and homework.

On Monday, she visited the IT department at her school, only to find an “overwhelming” number of students waiting outside. “They told me to write my name down and wait a while for further instructions,” she told CNA.

Her friend suggested logging in with her own Apple account and redownloading all the apps. “For me, because I saved it all on iCloud, I was very fortunate to get back all my notes,” she continued.

“But for some of my classmates who forgot about that, when they redownloaded the apps, all their notes and drawings were all gone. So that’s kind of sad.”
While she has some physical notes, a large portion of them are on her iPad. “This whole thing is a bit stressful, but I’m just glad I’m able to recover it,” she said, adding that she plans to turn on the auto-backup function in case this happens again.

Ms Karen Goh, whose daughter is a Secondary 3 student in MGS, described an identical situation, with the school’s IT department facing a two-hour queue last week.

Her daughter backed up her device last week after seeing her classmates lose their notes. But at about 10pm on Sunday, all the apps that she had downloaded through Mobile Guardian were gone, cutting off accessibility to her notes.

Like Hailey, her daughter managed to recover most of her notes through her iCloud backup using her personal Apple account.

“There’s a bit of relief there. But I think for students that had the initial problem, the WiFi problem, they probably haven’t gotten to that stage yet,” Ms Goh said.
“For some people, they’re still quite anxious and worried because they have their exams and written assessments coming up as early as next week.”

LOSING "MANY PRICELESS THINGS"​

Affected students across Singapore were allowed to bring their own devices or laptops from home to use in class on Monday.

MOE said on Monday that efforts are underway to safely restore the devices to normal, and that it was considering other measures to regulate device usage to support learning during this period.

"MOE is working with schools to support affected students, including deploying additional IT roving teams to schools and providing additional learning resources."

Mitchell (not his real name), a Secondary 3 student at Riverside Secondary School, said he was working on a history project at 9pm on Sunday night when he noticed his apps disappearing.

“I was confused and thought this only affected my PLD (personal learning device). However, when I came to school the next day, I saw all my classmates’ iPads and I found out that it actually affected everyone.”

The school announced that its IT department would be resetting all the devices in batches and help them recover their notes via backup.

“I heard that some students might get unlucky if they don’t backup regularly, and they might lose everything in their PLD,” he said.

His important notes are in hardcopy “for safety”, but about 70 per cent of his notes are on his iPad.

“I did lose many priceless things, such as annotations on worksheets that were given throughout the years since I received the PLD,” he said, empathising with O-Level students who now have difficulties revising for their exams.

Most students could not use their iPads in class on Monday and productivity was “set back by a lot”. Teachers provided them with hardcopy worksheets instead.
The school also said that they knew some students had lost their notes and would provide additional materials to support them, Mitchell told CNA.

At Dunman High School, students started facing problems with their Chromebooks on Monday morning. Most websites were locked by Mobile Guardian, with a message that stated there were problems linking their devices, Secondary 3 student Pearlyn (not her real name) told CNA.

“This resulted in a lot of people from my school being unable to complete a graded project due today, much to a lot of people’s dismay,” she added.
While it was later made known that Mobile Guardian would be removed from all personal learning devices, most of their devices remain affected by the glitches.

However, unlike students who have iPads, their files are still saved in the school’s Google Drive, which can be accessed from other devices.
“My other computer is at home, so it’s not a huge concern for me. But for others, I’m sure it is,” Pearlyn said.

Her classmates have been using their phones to access their notes, and they were also allowed to submit their graded projects on their phones on Tuesday.

“It personally doesn’t affect me as much as my notes are pretty much pen and paper notes, but my classmates are indeed worried. They’re hoping the school takes action soon.”

Source: CNA/hw(sn)
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Byebye Penis

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'How am I going to pass my O-Levels': Students lose notes due to Mobile Guardian hack​

https://www.channelnewsasia.com/sin...nt-notes-gone-o-levels-exams-ipad-app-4528331

Ministry of Education (MOE) announced that a global cybersecurity breach affected about 13,000 secondary school students from 26 schools in Singapore – they had their devices wiped remotely by a hacker. But issues with some of the devices started last week, students and parents told CNA. At MGS and Raffles Girls School (RGS), some students could not use their iPads to access the internet, and had to factory reset their devices last week, resulting in some students losing their work.


At first, it was login issues for the software for a few days. Then suddenly many suddenly, many students' saved works and data got wiped out.

Some thoughts:

1. Cyber-security issues due to software, shouldn't cause outright data loss. I also wonder why where does MOE student save their work/data, the cloud never provided back-up service?

2. The data loss should not be related to the software but could some kancheong MOE vendor did a factory reset on data server and deleted everything?

3. If it is really a hacker, who did this? no money to make. could it be a smart student? If it is a disgruntled local student, hope Govtech will recruit the girl or Army will commission him as an officer in the Digital and Intelligence Service.

This is also not a randomware attack. Mobile Guardian's Cybersecurity issues may not be related to the data loss. Could hacking be an excuse for some vendor's mistake? Mobile Guardian may have cybersecurity issues but I don't find data-loss reported in other countries?

PMO office's SNGDO and Govtech should raid MOE's vendors to find out the real reason.
 

sbfuncle

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What's up with all these kan cheong kiasu spider parents? Lost notes and even stop studying for even a few mths doesn't make any difference to their future.
Losing school notes is not losing any financial money.
Stop this moe fear mongering shit.
Even without losing any notes, the students would be asked to revise and revise.. Can't they just redo the notes as a revision exercise?
 

Byebye Penis

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The Straits Times understands that data backup is handled by different MOE schools’ information technology departments in different ways.

Some schools have automated daily data backup to the schools’ cloud systems for every issued device, while some coursework may require students to save copies of their work on their devices or on apps such as Goodnotes.

Data generated using Goodnotes can be saved in Dropbox or Google Drive, or by syncing the app with iCloud. However, users must turn on the feature as it is not turned on by default.

Experts said students can send themselves copies of their work via e-mail as a good way of backing up their schoolwork if they run out of options. Students can also opt to use a third-party site like Google to save their notes.

https://www.straitstimes.com/singap...ian-work-and-what-data-does-it-have-access-to
 

Byebye Penis

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What is Mobile Guardian’s history of data protection?
In April, an unauthorised individual gained access to a support account on Mobile Guardian’s management portal, using it to view information of customers based in the US and Asia-Pacific region, including Singapore.

This hack affected about 67,000 parents and 22,000 school employees across 127 schools in Singapore, said Education Minister Chan Chun Sing in a written parliamentary reply on May 7.

Mobile Guardian’s management portal is used for administrative purposes like providing technical support, and the portal has access to a user’s name, e-mail address, time zone and school name, and whether a user is a parent or a staff member, he said.

MOE had asked Mobile Guardian then to appoint a forensic investigator to evaluate its systems and processes, and give recommendations to prevent a recurrence.

On Aug 4, another global cyber-security breach involving Mobile Guardian, separate from the hacking incident in April, caused about 13,000 students from 26 secondary schools to be unable to access their applications and information stored in their devices.

In late July, technical issues were reported by students in at least five secondary schools in Singapore. Students reported being unable to access their iPads, where they had their school notes, assignments and worksheets stored.

Other problems students faced included not being able to connect to Wi-Fi and receiving an error message: “Guided Access app unavailable. Please contact your administrator.”

These issues were separate from the cyber-security breach, MOE said, and were due to human error in configuration by Mobile Guardian.

https://www.straitstimes.com/singap...ian-work-and-what-data-does-it-have-access-to
 
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