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Hackers say they have stolen the pictures, names and addresses of around 8,000 children from the Kido nursery chain.<\/p>\n
A group of cyber criminals says it is using the highly sensitive information to demand a ransom from the company, which has 18 sites in and around London, with more in the US and India.<\/p>\n
The criminals say they also have information about the children’s parents and carers as well as safeguarding notes.<\/p>\n
They claim to have contacted some parents by phone as part of their extortion tactics.<\/p>\n
The BBC has contacted Kido for comment. It is yet to confirm the hackers’ claims. <\/p>\n
But an employee at one of the nurseries confirmed they have been notified of a data breach.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Cyber-security firm Check Point described the targeting of nurseries as “an absolute new low”.<\/p>\n
One of its experts Graeme Stuart said: “To deliberately put children and schools in the firing line, is indefensible. Frankly, it is appalling.”<\/p>\n
The hacking group responsible for the claims appears to be relatively new and calls itself Radiant. <\/p>\n
The cyber criminals contacted the BBC about the hack and have subsequently posted details of it to their darknet website.<\/p>\n
It has published a sample of data there including pictures and profiles of 10 children from the stolen data set.<\/p>\n
It has been published as part of their attempt to extort money from the nursery chain, which has its 18 nurseries mostly in the London area.<\/p>\n
Police advise not to pay ransoms as it further fuels the cyber-crime ecosystem.<\/p>\n
When asked by BBC News if they felt bad about extorting a nursery using the children’s data, the criminals said they “weren’t asking for an enormous amount” and they “deserve some compensation for our pentest.”<\/p>\n
A “pentest” – or penetration test – is the term for when ethical hackers are hired to assess the security of an organisation in a controlled and professional way. <\/p>\n
These hackers however attacked the nursery chain without their permission.<\/p>\n
“Of course” it’s about money, they admitted to the BBC.<\/p>\n
The hack is the latest in a series of high-profile cyber-attacks, which has seen production grind to a halt at Jaguar Land Rover<\/a>, and caused massive disruption to M&S<\/a> and the Co-op<\/a>.<\/p>\n Additional reporting by Graham Fraser, Technology reporter<\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n