A HEREFORD school which has seen pupils' data leaked on the dark web has tried to reassure parents that it's working to address the problem.

The Bishop of Hereford's Bluecoat School, in Hampton Dene Road, said the full names and addresses of students had been posted on the dark web – a hidden section of the internet where criminals can communicate anonymously.

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Along with that information, students' unique pupil number, date of birth, gender, ethnicity, additional special educational needs information, multi-agency safeguarding hub reports and police incident reports had also been shared.

In a letter to parents, headteacher Martin Henton said he "appreciated the concern parents will have about the extent and implications of the data breach".

The school, with around 1,000 pupils, "sincerely apologised for the distress that this may cause" and highlighted what it was doing in response.

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The school has been working with the cyber police, it has bought and installed extra software to avoid similar attacks in the future and it will also contact any parents directly if any usernames and passwords have been leaked.

On top of that, Mr Henton said the school had appointed a data protection officer who is "actively working with the school to address the data breach".

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"The hacking group responsible for this criminal activity on us have made similar attacks internationally with a focus on public sector organisations, specifically schools and hospitals, seemingly with the intent to cause as much disruption and distress as possible," Mr Henton said in the letter to parents.