MOE to remove Mobile Guardian app from students' devices after global cybersecurity breach

Channel NewsAsia

The Ministry of Education said it was alerted by schools late Sunday night that some students who use iPads or Chromebooks as personal learning devices could not access their apps and information stored in them.

SINGAPORE — The Mobile Guardian application will be removed from all students' personal learning devices after a global cybersecurity breach affected about 13,000 secondary school students in Singapore.

The students, from 26 secondary schools, had their devices wiped remotely by the perpetrator. 

Mobile Guardian is a device management app installed on personal learning devices used by students. It enables parents to manage students’ device usage by restricting applications or websites and screen time. 

In a media statement on Monday (Aug 5), the Ministry of Education (MOE) said it was alerted by schools late Sunday night that some students who use iPads or Chromebooks as personal learning devices could not access their apps and information stored in them.

"MOE immediately registered strong concerns with mobile device management company Mobile Guardian," the ministry said.

"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."

Mobile Guardian said it was alerted to suspicious activity on its platform at 10pm Singapore time on Sunday and detected unauthorised access to the iOS and ChromeOS devices enrolled to its platform.

It affected users globally, including North America, Europe and Singapore.

"This resulted in a small percentage of devices to be unenrolled from Mobile Guardian and their devices wiped remotely.

"There is no evidence to suggest that the perpetrator had access to users’ data," Mobile Guardian said on its website.

Mobile Guardian added that it has halted its services to prevent further unauthorised access. 

"As a precautionary measure, MOE will remove the Mobile Guardian Device Management Application from all iPads and Chromebooks," said Singapore's Education Ministry.

"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."

MOE noted that Sunday's incident was not related to earlier technical issues students faced at the end of July due to a human error in configuration by Mobile Guardian.

"We understand that students are naturally concerned and anxious about the incident," said MOE.

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

The incident comes after a similar one in April when the personal information of parents and staff members from 127 schools was accessed through Mobile Guardian in a data security breach. CNA

This article was originally published on Today Online News. Its inclusion on this website is solely for education purposes.