SINGAPORE: Following a hacking incident that resulted in the devices of more than 10,000 secondary school students being wiped remotely, the Ministry of Education (MOE) will remove the Mobile Guardian application from all students' devices.

In a media statement on Monday (Aug 5), MOE said it was alerted by schools late Sunday night that some students who use iPads or Chromebooks as personal learning devices could not access their applications and information stored in them.

Mobile Guardian is a device management app installed on personal learning devices used by students. The app enables parents to manage students’ device usage by restricting applications or websites and screen time. 

"MOE immediately registered strong concerns with mobile device management company Mobile Guardian," the ministry said.

MOE said through Mobile Guardian's investigations, it found that there had been a "global cybersecurity incident" involving unauthorised access to its platform, which affected customers, including those in Singapore.

Preliminary checks showed that about 13,000 students from 26 secondary schools in Singapore had their devices wiped remotely by the hacker.