09/10/20

We apologise that a number of parents had issues in the past few days accessing Wisepay, the system through which you load credit onto your son or daughter’s account for purchases in the tuck shop and café.

We were notified on 7 October that WisePay suffered a cyberattack over the weekend so the site was taken offline. On 8 October, WisePay identified the small number of our parents directly affected by the attack and we contacted those people immediately. If you have not heard from us individually, we have no reason to believe at this stage that your information was compromised.

No card details are stored in WisePay so the cybercriminals were only able to target people who attempted to make payments between 2nd – 5th October.

The site is now back online but all users are required to reset their passwords. We understand that Wisepay rejects passwords containing the £ symbol so this should be avoided when inputting a new password.

We have been reassured that WisePay has taken steps to implement additional security measures designed to prevent a recurrence of such an event. However, we will assess, once all urgent necessary action has been taken, whether we are happy to continue with WisePay as a provider.

Please note that personal information stored on the MCS Parent Portal is entirely secure and this breach only affects Wisepay as an external provider.

If you have any questions please email data@mcsoxford.org.