As education organisations continue to rely heavily on digital systems for learning, safeguarding, administration and communications, the consequences of cyber disruption are becoming more severe and more visible.
Recent government research shows that a significant proportion of education institutions have experienced a cyber breach or attack in the past year, with secondary schools, further education colleges and universities among the most affected. The research carried out in 2024, showed that 71 per cent of secondary schools, 86 per cent of further education collages and 97 per cent of higher education institutions experienced a cyberattack in the previous twelve months. Attackers are drawn to the sector due to limited IT resources, legacy systems and the volume of sensitive personal data held on students, staff and families.
The real-world, recent impact of these attacks was highlighted earlier this year in Nuneaton, where Higham Lane School was forced to close temporarily following a cyberattack that disabled its IT systems, stopping pupils and teachers returning after the Christmas break.
Phone lines, email, learning platforms and internal management systems were taken offline, disrupting teaching and administration and leaving pupils unable to access essential services. The incident reportedly required specialist technical support and extended recovery efforts, underlining how quickly a single attack can escalate into widespread operational disruption.
Incidents like this are not isolated. Across the UK, schools hit by ransomware and other attacks have reported lost access to coursework, safeguarding records and financial systems, as well as concerns around potential data exposure. In many cases, recovery has been slowed by inadequate backup arrangements, unclear incident response plans or a lack of visibility into critical systems and risks.
The sector needs to quickly get up-to-speed with the threats and risks facing them, as Matthew Davies, CPO at SureCloud explains:
"Cyber incidents in education rarely fail because of one single technical issue, they escalate because organisations have not fully understood their risks or prepared for disruption.
"Schools need to know which systems are critical, ensure secure and tested backups are in place, and have a clear incident response plan that staff understand and can act on quickly. Regular patching, monitoring and cyber awareness training are just as important, because most attacks still begin with a simple phishing email. The difference between a short disruption and weeks of downtime often comes down to preparation.
"This for many seems like an almost impossible task. Budgets are low, internal teams are often small and do not have the specific skills needed and against a backdrop of an increasingly sophisticated cybercriminal, some education establishments are keeping the heads firmly in the sand.
"However, without a more proactive approach to cyber risk management, education providers will continue to face prolonged outages, rising recovery costs and growing pressure from regulators and parents alike. As attacks increase in scale and sophistication, the focus is shifting from whether an incident will occur to how well institutions are prepared to respond and recover.
"Many are turning to affordable governance, risk and compliance solutions that can offer an ’enterprise’ level of cover, without the associated cost. Preparation is going to be key in 2026 and the sooner education organisations get ahead of the game, the better," Davies concluded.
