SECURITY
not mean predicting every attack. It means creating strong protection so incidents are avoided alongside building resilience. Should an incident occur it is detected quickly, causes minimal disruption, and does not spiral into a crisis.
We must collectively accept responsibility for the condition of the education system, as most of the education sector is funded through taxation. When public services fail to safeguard the data they hold, trust erodes, and the consequences fall on families and communities. Yet, we are collectively aware that schools struggle to maintain the required cybersecurity posture and continue to hand over personal sensitive data without requiring information on how it will be protected or demanding that politicians provide the adequate resources to ensure a strong cybersecurity posture. This “head in the sand” approach of handing over personal data and then complaining when there is a data breach needs to change to a prevention-first attitude and asking questions about security upfront.
A political blind spot
The education sector faces some of the most pressing cybersecurity risks today – risks that can disrupt learning, compromise sensitive data, and undermine public trust. Social engineering remains the single greatest threat: phishing emails target staff and students to steal credentials, spread malware, and in some cases paralyse entire school systems when the compromise results in a ransomware attack. Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks add another layer of disruption, overwhelming both on- and off-premises servers and services, cutting off access to digital classrooms, assignments, and communication channels. At the higher education level, intellectual property theft poses a unique danger, with scientific, medical, or engineering research increasingly targeted by criminal groups or competing research establishments. Despite this, our policy response still tends to focus on what happens after the breach, rather than what prevents it. The UK’s latest ransomware proposals underline that shift. Last year, the Home Office and NCSC outlined measures that would look to place a ban on public sector bodies and operators of critical national infrastructure, including schools, from paying ransom demands. This also included moves towards mandatory reporting and new requirements for some organisations to notify the government if they intend to pay. The intent is to disrupt the business model, improve national visibility, and reduce repeat victimisation. However, this does not deter attackers as there is significant opportunity in selling sensitive personal data on the dark web or targeting third-party service providers such as commercial entities that may choose to pay the ransom, even though they are funded through revenue from public-sector customers. The attack surface is broad, with phishing attacks that thrive on weak passwords and shared devices; third-party EdTech platforms that often lack proper oversight; and outdated systems that remain easy prey for cybercriminals, all daily realities in education today. If education truly is the foundation of our societies, then protecting it must be non- negotiable. A prevention-first mindset is the only way to ensure that schools and universities can focus on what matters most: shaping the
February 2026
next generation without the constant threat of disruption.
A roadmap for schools
The good news is that building a prevention-first posture doesn’t require enterprise budgets. It requires discipline and leadership. Schools can start with:
• Risk assessments: Regular scans to identify vulnerabilities.
• Follow cybersecurity frameworks: Higher Education Community Vendor Assessment Toolkit (HECVAT) or NIST CSF for general IT guidance to strengthen cloud security, implement best practices, and reduce risk.
• Vulnerability & patch management: automated scans and rapid patching, backed by real-time protection against ransomware and zero-day threats deployed on endpoints and servers.
• Credential hygiene: Multi-factor authentication (MFA) should be a default requirement to block common entry points.
• Vendor oversight: Scrutinising EdTech providers for their security practices and limiting their access.
• Training & awareness: Recurring, practical training for staff and students to recognise phishing and unsafe practices.
• Incident response and cyber resilience planning: A clear plan for when (not if) something goes wrong.
These are not optional extras. They are the bare minimum of modern risk management.
A call to leadership
Schools cannot solve this alone. Regulators must demand accountability from EdTech vendors who handle sensitive student data. Leadership teams in schools and universities must stop thinking of cybersecurity as a cost burden, and instead see it as what it is – risk management that safeguards education itself.
Accountability must not stop at the school gate. Ministers, the Department for Education, and local authorities all shape what is possible. If we want schools to be resilient, cybersecurity must be resourced and measured like any other safeguarding responsibility – clearly owned, routinely tested, and properly enforced across the ecosystem.
Education deserves better
Every unpatched vulnerability, every reused password, and every unvetted vendor platform is a catastrophe waiting to happen. If we don’t shift to a prevention-first posture, we will see more headlines about stolen student data, cancelled classes, and broken trust. Schools exist to give young people a future.
That future is being undermined by preventable cyberattacks. Education deserves resilience, not crisis management. Prevention isn’t optional – it is urgent.
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