CYBER SECURITY
Making the education sector more
cyber resilient SOPHIE VINGOE, Consultant at Cyberis, explains why education is such an attractive target for cybercriminals and provides advice on how to reduce the risk of attack
S
chools, colleges and universities are custodians of vast amounts of sensitive data, including the personal information of students and staff, financial records and often proprietary research. This data means the education sector has long been an appealing target for cybercriminals. However, the shift towards digital learning environments has further expanded the attack surface, making educational institutions even more vulnerable to a variety of increasingly sophisticated cyber threats.
According to the UK government’s 2024 Cyber Security Breaches Survey, 71 per cent of secondary schools and 86 per cent of further education colleges had reported experiencing a cyberattack or breach in the previous year. Higher education institutions were even more badly affected, with a massive 97 per cent reporting having at least one cyberattack or breach.
Educational institutions have their own distinct and difficult set of cybersecurity challenges. Not least of these is that they have a diverse and sometimes vulnerable user base. Both schools and universities will be working with a wide array of users, including students, faculty, administrative staff and external partners. Each of these groups will need different levels of access, while every individual will have a different level of cybersecurity awareness. This diversity means that the enforcement of uniform security policies is extremely difficult.
The culture in academia also promotes the ability to have open access to information and work within collaborative networks. While this is clearly great for helping to create the right environment for learning and research, it also has the potential to create additional vulnerabilities that can be exploited by cyber adversaries.
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www.education-today.co.uk April 2025
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