Education WHY
CYBERSECURITY STARTS WITH THE NETWORK FOR EDUCATION
Rachel Rothwell, senior regional director, Zyxel Networks, says that by taking a pragmatic approach, schools and colleges can get the cybersecurity protection they need.
A
ccording to the UK government’s Cybersecurity breaches survey 2025, over a 12 month period, 60% of
secondary schools, 85% of further education (FE) colleges, and 91% of higher educational (HE) institutions experienced some kind of cyberattack or breach. For primary schools the figure was lower
at 44%, but even this was a percentage point higher than the overall prevalence of attacks across commercial businesses. Education also experienced a wider range of threats and attempted breaches and were targeted more frequently than companies.
A soft target? Te numbers are higher for education because it is seen as a soſt target. Within their networks and systems schools store highly confidential information that can be used to personally identify individuals. Tis is valuable data that criminals can easily sell on the dark web. But few schools or colleges can afford the
kind of stringent protection that a commercial business will have in place, making it is easier for cybercriminals to penetrate their defences. In addition, schools any have a wider ‘attack surface’ with students logging onto the network from different locations all the time, oſten using multiple devices of their own. Schools and
34 | March/April 2026
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