COMPUTING & IT RESOURCES
When school IT goes down, learning stops: why data recovery defines cyber resilience in education
JAMES GRIFFIN, CEO of CyberSentriq, tells us how cyber attacks disrupt classrooms, safeguarding, and digital learning – and why data recov- ery speed now matters more than ever.
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hen education systems go down, lessons are cancelled, digital platforms become unavailable, safeguarding records are harder to access, and staff are forced into crisis response. In a sector increasingly dependent on technology, IT downtime now has immediate educational consequences. Cyber incidents are no longer rare or exceptional across the education sector.
UK government research published in 2025 shows that around 60% of secondary schools and 44% of primary schools experienced a cyber breach in the past year. The figures rise sharply to 85% in further education and over 90% in higher education. At this scale, cyber attacks have become a routine operational risk for education providers of all sizes.
Despite increased investment in prevention, education remains a highly attractive target for attackers. Schools, colleges and universities manage large volumes of sensitive personal data, operate complex digital estates and often face budget and resource constraints. Ransomware, phishing and credential- based attacks continue to exploit these conditions, allowing attackers to disrupt systems with relative ease.
In many incidents, however, the most damaging factor is not the initial breach itself, but the time it takes to recover data and restore systems after an attack. When learning platforms, student records and administrative systems are unavailable for days or weeks, the educational impact quickly escalates.
Cyber attacks hit the education sector particularly hard Education IT environments are uniquely exposed. A single outage can immediately affect lesson delivery, online assessments, attendance tracking, safeguarding workflows and communications with parents and students. Unlike many other sectors, there is limited tolerance for downtime during term time, exam periods or enrolment windows.
Safeguarding is a particular concern. When access to student records and monitoring systems is disrupted, staff may struggle to identify vulnerable learners or respond to incidents promptly. Even short-term outages can introduce serious operational and reputational risk. Ransomware attacks amplify these pressures. By encrypting systems and data, attackers deliberately prevent access to learning platforms and administrative tools. Increasingly, they also threaten data leaks, adding regulatory and trust implications to operational disruption.
Why prevention alone is no longer enough
While perimeter security, endpoint protection and user awareness remain essential, they are no longer sufficient on their own. Attackers routinely bypass preventative controls using stolen credentials, social engineering and supply chain weaknesses.
In complex education environments, it is unrealistic to assume every attack can be stopped.
This shift has pushed data backup and data recovery to the centre of cyber resilience planning. Without resilient, protected backups, schools and universities can face extended system outages that disrupt teaching, delay exams and assessments and create compliance challenges.
What effective data backup and recovery looks like in the education sector
Effective data recovery is no longer just about having copies of data. It requires secure, isolated and immutable backups that cannot be altered or
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deleted by attackers, even if production systems are compromised. Cloud-first and immutable backup architectures play a critical role in protecting recovery data from ransomware and insider threats.
Equally important is recoverability. Institutions must be confident not only that their data is backed up, but that it can be restored quickly and reliably at scale.
Regular testing, automation and clear data recovery workflows are essential to avoid delays when incidents occur.
In this context, recovery speed matters more than backup frequency. Having multiple backups is of limited value if restoring systems takes days. Fast, predictable data recovery enables learning platforms, administrative systems and safeguarding tools to be brought back online quickly, reducing disruption.
How fast data recovery protects learning continuity Rapid data and system recovery directly supports educational continuity. When platforms can be restored within hours rather than days, lessons can resume, assessments stay on schedule and staff can focus on supporting learners instead of managing prolonged crises.
Fast recovery also plays a central role in maintaining trust. Parents, students, regulators and funding bodies expect education providers to safeguard data and maintain operational stability. Demonstrating the ability to recover data quickly after an incident reinforces confidence and reduces reputational damage.
As digital learning platforms, cloud services and remote access become fundamental to education delivery, recovery capability is now as critical as prevention.
What education leaders should prioritise next For education leaders, cyber resilience should no longer be measured by whether an attack occurs, but by how quickly data and systems can be recovered and teaching can resume.
Data recovery planning must assume disruption is a certainty, not a worst- case scenario.
Simplifying cyber resilience is key. Schools and institutions should prioritise solutions that reduce operational burden on overstretched IT teams while delivering assured data recovery outcomes. Backup and recovery should be treated as a core component of educational continuity planning, not a technical afterthought.
In an era of routine cyber disruption, assured data recovery underpins learning continuity, safeguarding and trust across the education community.
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