UPDATE 06/01/23:
Thank you for your patience as we continue to investigate the cyber incident on the 28th December 2023.
The College will be open as usual on Monday January 9.
Staying Vigilant: It is essential that people remain vigilant to any contact via emails, text messages or phone calls you do not recognise or is unusual for you. Do not open attachments or links unless you are certain of the origin of email or text. If you have not already done so, please visit the ICO website where you can find out more on protecting your information and organisations that can support you in doing this, such as CIFAS.
Exams: The vast majority of exams will be going ahead as scheduled. These will now revert to paper based if previously taken online.
January Courses and Enrolment: We will be enrolling face to face from 10:00am – 4:00pm on weekdays from January 10th, and during open evening on January 16th at Brecon Beacons College and Afan College and January 17th at Newtown College and Neath College from 4.30pm – 7.30pm.
Open evenings: The College will proceed with the arranged Open Evenings for the 16th and 17th of January between 4:30pm -7:30pm as normal.
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On 28 December 2022 suspicious activity was detected on the College’s IT network and a cyber-attack of a criminal nature was discovered.
As soon as the cyber-attack was identified the College contacted JISC who provide and monitor our network connection and their cyber security consultants who implemented a critical incident plan.
This critical incident plan has been developed based on over 30 similar incidents that JISC have dealt with.
We have contacted the Police and Action Fraud (the UK’s national fraud and cyber-crime department) and are providing them with any information they need for their investigation. The incident has also been reported to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), the UK regulatory body for data protection.
Investigations are continuing but in the meantime, the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) recommends individuals who are concerned they may be the subject of a data breach register with CIFAS, an organisation that helps protect individuals from fraud as a result of identity theft.
The knock-on effect of the cyber-attack means that systems and services across NPTC Group of Colleges may have been affected and we are currently running limited systems but are working to restore normal activity.
Please send any queries to principalpa@nptcgroup.ac.uk however we will provide daily updates as we establish more information on the criminal activity that has taken place to date.
Catherine Lewis
Acting CEO
