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The Northern Ireland Education Authority (EA) has been hit by a cyber attack on its systems, leading the authority to advise schools and their pupils in Northern Ireland to renew their connections to the authority's system and for schools, individual pupils and staff to reset their passwords.

All online and IT systems in Northern Irish schools are provided through the C2K network, managed by the EA. On 5th April, users - including pupils - found that they were unable to log in to their systems as the result of a security breach.

The authority said today (9th April 2026) that the incident had been "contained" and that its systems managers are now in the "remediation phase".

The authority said that there is no evidence to date of data exfiltration or corruption but that a full investigation is being undertaken and that the situation will continue to be monitored. It also said that it is engaging with the Information Commissioner's Office and relevant authorities.

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