Schools and trusts have been urged to ignore “fraudulent” letters with “a ministerial signature” purporting to be about a data breach. The Department for Education has issued the warning over deceptive communications masquerading as a government 鈥渞egulatory notice鈥�. It said leaders should ignore the instructions set out in the missive, which claims 鈥渢here has been a data breach鈥� at a firm that maintains background check records for schools. In a notice, , DfE stated the correspondence 鈥渋s confirmed as fraudulent and has not been issued by the minister鈥檚 office鈥�. Ministerial signature 鈥淲e have been made aware that some academy trusts have received a letter presented as a DfE 鈥榥ational regulatory notice鈥�,鈥� officials said. 鈥淚t includes a ministerial signature and claims there has been a data breach involving Online SCR/Intradev.鈥� School have been told not to 鈥渇ollow any instructions in the letter鈥� or 鈥渟hare data or comply with the directions鈥�. They must also 鈥渆nsure senior leaders, governance leads and administrative teams are aware鈥� and 鈥渞eport any receipt of the letter鈥� to the DfE. 鈥淭his letter is confirmed as fraudulent and has not been issued by the minister鈥檚 office,鈥� the notice said. 鈥淚f anyone has already acted on the letter, notify your school鈥檚 IT or security lead. You should also report it through your usual process and monitor systems for unusual activity.鈥� Cyber-attack Intradev, a software supplier to Online SCR, also known as Single Central Record, was hit by a cyber-attack last summer. It was feared names, addresses, phone, national insurance and passport numbers of school staff members may have been compromised by the incident. Online SCR says it manages more than 350,000 staff records at 1,500 schools. Mark Gardner, Online SCR’s director, said the company was “aware of the letter and it is clearly a serious attempt to damage our business and reputation using fraudulent methods, including forging a minister’s signature on a fake government document”. He added: “We are glad the DfE has responded quickly and alerted multi-academy trusts to the fraudulent nature of the correspondence and advised them not to act on it. “The letter contains inaccuracies and deliberately misleading claims. We hope the DfE counter fraud team finds who is behind this.” Intradev managing director Steve Cheetham said the firm “regrets that its name has been used by fraudsters”. It is “committed to supporting the DfE and any impacted parties in order to help prevent scams of this nature”. You can report fraud in the education sector .