Education
Going back to school on security
Matt Middleton-Leal, managing director for EMEA North at Qualys looks at the cyber security opportunities in the education sector.
T
he education sector is a common target for bad actors – according to the Department of Science, Innovation and Technology
Cybersecurity breaches survey 2024: education institutions annex report, more than half of primary schools (52%) identified a breach or attack in the previous twelve months. For secondary schools, the figure is even higher at 71%in the past year. Te worst off are further education and higher education institutions, where 85% and 97% saw attacks respectively. As pupils get older – and as universities and colleges hold more
sensitive information and financial data - the number of attacks goes up. Tese organisations are more engaged in security than the average business, due in part to their duty of care regarding student and pupil data and partly to the emphasis placed on security by their leadership teams. According to the research, security is a high priority for governors and / or senior management across the board - 98% of primary schools, 96% of secondary schools, and 100% of further education colleges and higher education institutions rated their leaders as highly engaged around security.
30 | May/June 2024 However, across the education sector, budgets
for spending around security are restricted. While economic conditions have affected the funding levels for schools, colleges and universities leading to flat or reduced budgets, the number of attacks has not decreased. In fact, it has grown - there are more opportunistic attacks taking place using automated ransomware as a service tool, while threat actor groups are using more soſtware vulnerabilities for attacks. Te Qualys Treat Research Unit found that 125 soſtware vulnerabilities were weaponised - turned from potential
risks into automated attacks that can be implemented at scale – in 2023, compared to 120 in the previous three years combined. So, for channel companies that want to engage with customers in
this sector, how can you plan ahead and be successful? Where can you make the most difference to education providers and deliver effective, profitable services?
Understanding IT in schools and colleges Te simple answer to this is that there is no one size fits all strategy to apply here. Tere are huge differences in how schools and colleges
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