The last of all devices affected by Mobile Guardian’s glitch and cyber-security breach will be fixed by Aug 16 as schools double down on restoration, with priority given to students taking their national examinations in 2024, said the Ministry of Education (MOE).
These include O- and N-level students.
“We aim to attend to the remaining affected devices by the end of next week,” said MOE on Aug 7 in response to questions from The Straits Times.
MOE said it has been working with schools to restore affected devices to normal usage. It has also deployed additional IT engineers to schools to help students restore their devices, and provide students who wish to troubleshoot their own devices with instruction sheets to guide them along.
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 about students with iPads or Chromebooks losing access to their apps and data. Affected students had all apps remotely wiped, with some losing years of notes.
Investigations by Mobile Guardian found that there was a cyber-security incident involving unauthorised access to its platform that affected customers globally, hitting about 13,000 students from 26 secondary schools here.
The security incident on Aug 4 is separate from earlier technical issues starting on July 30, caused by a Mobile Guardian configuration error. Then, students reported Wi-Fi connection problems, access issues and trouble with their iPads.
On Aug 5, MOE announced that the Mobile Guardian app would be removed from all students’ personal learning devices as a precautionary measure.
“To date, we have been able to fully restore information on devices that have been backed up on the cloud,” said MOE on Aug 7. “There is a small fraction of devices where information stored locally was not backed up and is not recoverable.”
It is working with schools to provide these students with additional support, including providing hardcopy resources and encouraging students to share their notes with those affected.
A Methodist Girls’ School Secondary 4 student, who lost access to her iPad in late July, said she recovered all her notes on Aug 7.
“I’m so glad that my classmates and I were able to get our notes back. We thought it was over for all of us,” she said. Her O-level preliminary exams started on Aug 2. They will go on until end-August.
Many students also rallied round affected classmates by sharing their notes, said MOE.
Two Sec 4 students from Nan Hua High School, Yu Boyuan, 16, and Sophie Wan, 15, said classmates have offered to print notes or upload them to a shared Google Drive. Others used video calls to help those affected with revision through online discussion.
Nan Hua student Duncan Lee, 15, said friends shared notes and information through WhatsApp and Gmail, which were accessible by phone.
Students were told to back up their data before submitting devices to the IT department for restoration work, and Boyuan said the school provided instructions for saving data with or without internet access, to minimise data loss.
“It was a very organised and efficient process,” said Nan Hua student Hu Xinhui, 16, adding that although she is still waiting for her iPad, she appreciates the school’s quick response.
“I am slightly worried about my data, as restoration might not recover everything,” she said. “This taught me not to over-rely on technology and to adapt quickly.”
Sophie added that the incident reminded her to diligently back up data and use note-taking apps that can be accessed across multiple devices.
Mr Chiew Jing Wen, principal of Nan Hua High School, told The Straits Times that it was heartwarming to see how his students supported each other through the crisis, recalling how some students had stayed in the IT department to help their peers even after their own devices were restored.
“We see the peer support that is coming out in this period of uneasiness among the students,” he said. “We are so proud of our students.”
Backing up notes is the students’ personal responsibility, Mr Chiew added, as they all have access to multiple note-taking apps, like Notability and Goodnotes, each with its own back-up methods.
“They need to have this discipline to back up the information that they have, so they will be able to retrieve it if anything happens to the device,” he said.
Devices for most Sec 4 Nan Hua students will be ready for collection on Aug 8, said Mr Chiew, adding that the other levels will be attended to progressively.
Beatty Secondary School principal Harman Johll said hard-copy resources were provided for students, and assignment deadlines and weighted assessments were rescheduled to give them more time to prepare.
Many students retrieved their work and notes on cloud services or by transferring them to a local drive, Mr Johll said, adding that it has been a practice at Beatty for students to actively back up their notes. MOE has also set up restoration stations to help affected students, he added.
“The intent is to ensure that disruption is kept to a minimum, and that students feel confident about being able to access a good proportion of what had been stored on their devices,” said Mr Johll, who added that parental guidance and support is critical to guide students on how they can continue to use their devices responsibly.
When asked if the school is relooking its policy on using devices in school, Mr Johll said that a good balance between the device and other teaching methods is needed.
He said: “We must not allow a single incident to deter our utility of technology.
“This is also critical in signalling to our students how we adjust and adapt to situations, and how we figure out solutions while being mindful and cognisant of potential issues.”
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