Children hacking their own schools for 'fun', watchdog warns
"What starts out as a dare, a challenge, a bit of fun in a school setting can ultimately lead to children taking part in damaging attacks on organisations or critical infrastructure," said Heather Toomey, Principal Cyber Specialist at the ICO.
It is warning teachers that they are failing to understand and recognise what it calls the "insider threat" pupils pose.
School children and college students are carrying out hacks and accessing private data for fun or as part of dares, the ICO says, calling it a "worrying trend".
More than half of school and college cyber attacks and data breaches are being carried out by their own pupils, the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) has revealed.
It comes amid a spate of high profile cyber-attacks, affecting firms including M&S and Jaguar Land Rover, in which teenage hackers have been implicated.
Since 2022, the ICO has investigated 215 hacks and breaches in education settings and says 57% were carried out by children.
According to the new data, almost a third of the breaches involved students illegally logging into staff computer systems by guessing passwords or stealing details from teachers.
In one incident, a seven-year-old was involved in a data breach and subsequently referred to the National Crime Agency's Cyber Choices programme to help them understand the seriousness of their actions.
The ICO did not give details on the nature of that breach.
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