Police Scotland received more than 300 calls on Monday 19 October after hoax bomb threat emails were sent to schools across Scotland, with similar emails received by schools in Northern Ireland.
Police have said there is no credible threat. Police Scotland’s Cyber and Fraud Unit is investigating the source, while the PSNI says its email originated outside the UK.
City of Edinburgh Council asked staff to work from home on an in-service day, as did some Inverclyde schools. In Northern Ireland, some schools closed while others stayed open.
Andrea Bradley, general secretary of the EIS teaching union, said the scale was “very unusual” and that whoever sent the emails intended to cause fear and alarm.
Several head teachers in Northern Ireland said they had been left to make difficult decisions alone. Claire Robinson, principal of Holy Evangelists’ Primary School in west Belfast, called the advice “practically non-existent.”
This raises questions for universities, where thousands of students and staff rely on email and shared systems. A threatening email could plausibly reach students as well as staff.
A second-year student said: “I would feel frightened if I received an email with this kind of threat on the University system. I wouldn’t know how to react.”
Dr Richard Jones, Senior Lecturer in Criminology at Edinburgh University, told The Student police would be establishing whether one person or a group was responsible, and whether anyone overseas was involved. He said schools follow pre-arranged procedures, including contacting police and evacuating until it is safe, and that universities, including Edinburgh, “already have contingency measures and procedures in place” for scenarios including bomb threats.
Suspicious emails should be reported to the University of Edinburgh’s Information Security Helpline, which is on call around the clock. Police Scotland asks for reports on 101, or 999 in an emergency.
Photo by Patrick F. on Unsplash
