East Lothian schools taken offline over virus fears

Schools in East Lothian have been temporarily taken offline due to a virus alert.

An investigation is underway following the decision to suspend internet access for approximately 16,000 pupils and staff in the area. East Lothian Council reported that the school network was shut down yesterday after antivirus alerts were triggered by the IT teams.

As of today, students are able to access their education system through Google Chromebooks, but other devices, including those used by teachers and administrative staff, remain offline. Schools reportedly have contingency plans in place for situations of this nature.

A spokesperson for East Lothian Council stated, “We have taken the precautionary step of taking our schools temporarily offline while we investigate a number of antivirus alerts on our education network. Work to determine the cause continues, and we are liaising with school teams and our suppliers to minimize disruption. Chromebook access has since been re-enabled to education sites. There is no indication our systems have been compromised.”

The council operates seven secondary and 36 primary schools, and clarified that the education network is distinct from its corporate network, which remains unaffected.

This incident follows a previous incident in which pupil access to Gmail accounts was suspended after inappropriate content was circulated from a student’s email.