CYBER SECURITY
Front of classroom security: a new foundation of school safeguarding
E
ducation Today hears from Lance Solomon, Chief Product Officer at Promethean.
For a long time, the security conversation in education was treated as a set of simple choices within two larger categories: physical security (locks on doors, visitor control, CCTV) and IT security (antivirus on a laptop, firewalls, email filtering). But schools have never worked in neat silos – and neither do today’s threats. Security is multi-dimensional, spanning people, processes, devices, data, and the suppliers that sit behind them.
Nowhere is that shift clearer than on the classroom wall. What once was thought of as a piece of “furniture” is, in reality, a high-powered, connected computer at the centre of teaching, learning, and the school network. It’s where teachers sign in and sync cloud drives, where students access web-based resources, and where sensitive data can pass between accounts, apps, and systems in seconds. In that reality, security can’t stop at the network perimeter: all devices in the technology ecosystem must be protected. If device security – particularly operating system and software vulnerabilities in addition to robust anti- malware/antivirus protection – doesn’t feature at the top table, you risk leaving an always-on back
34
www.education-today.co.uk door into your wider environment.
The 2026 reality: a sector under threat Why does this matter now more than ever? The data is clear: education is a primary target. Recent findings from the UK Government’s 2025 Cyber Security Breaches Survey found that the prevalence of cyber security breaches or attacks in the last 12 months was high among secondary schools (60%), further education colleges (85%), and higher education institutions (91%).
Meanwhile, Jisc – the not-for-profit membership organisation that provides digital infrastructure, IT services, and technology solutions to the education sector – recently released details from its annual cyber threat intelligence report, which found that whilst major incidents were fortunately lower in 2025 than 2024, the total incidents recorded had risen from over 11,000 to over 16,000 in the same timeframe.
These figures reinforce a growing concern: schools are increasingly viewed as attractive ‘soft targets’ because they hold large volumes of sensitive student, staff, and operational data. The consequences for a school are not just technical, but personal too. A breach can lead
April 2026
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44
