Six out of 10 UK secondary schools hit by cyber-attack or breach in past year

[6Foot2]

Link: Six out of 10 UK secondary schools hit by cyber-attack or breach in past year | Cybercrime | The Guardian

 

Quote

When hackers attacked UK nurseries last month and published children’s data online, they were accused of hitting a new low.

 

But the broader education sector is well used to being a target.

 

According to a UK government survey, educational institutions are more likely to face a cyber-attack or security breach than private businesses.

 

Six out of 10 secondary schools have suffered an attack or breach over the past 12 months, rising to eight out of 10 for further education colleges and nine out of 10 for higher education institutions. By comparison, four out of 10 businesses have faced a breach or attack – roughly the same proportion as primary schools.

 

Toby Lewis, the global head of threat analysis at the cybersecurity firm Darktrace, says the UK education sector is not necessarily being targeted deliberately. “They are just getting caught up in the dragnet of cybercrime attacks that are out there,” he says, adding that there is an “element of randomness and opportunism” in the targeting of cybercrime victims...

 

[TechMonkey]

The issue with this is it doesn't have any nuance.  I don't disagree that there is an issue around cyber security, especially in Education, but if this survey is like ones I have been asked to fill in the cyber-attack could be anything from a phishing email up to a full-blown ransomware event. We get phishing emails everyday, the majority are untargeted and stupidly simplistic, but it is counted as a full blown issue.

 

Either comes down to fear mongering or sales marketing.  Which is unhelpful.

[NegativeKillDeath]

10 minutes ago, TechMonkey said:

The issue with this is it doesn't have any nuance.  I don't disagree that there is an issue around cyber security, especially in Education, but if this survey is like ones I have been asked to fill in the cyber-attack could be anything from a phishing email up to a full-blown ransomware event. We get phishing emails everyday, the majority are untargeted and stupidly simplistic, but it is counted as a full blown issue.

 

Either comes down to fear mongering or sales marketing.  Which is unhelpful.

 

Heres the findings from the surveys https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/cyber-security-breaches-survey-2025/cyber-security-breaches-survey-2025-education-institutions-findings#chapter-1-overview-of-the-data

 

Phishing at 89% of secondaries. Ransomware at 3% 

[Roberto]

21 minutes ago, TechMonkey said:

The issue with this is it doesn't have any nuance.  I don't disagree that there is an issue around cyber security, especially in Education, but if this survey is like ones I have been asked to fill in the cyber-attack could be anything from a phishing email up to a full-blown ransomware event. We get phishing emails everyday, the majority are untargeted and stupidly simplistic, but it is counted as a full blown issue.

 

Either comes down to fear mongering or sales marketing.  Which is unhelpful.

 

I can think of at least one pre-school educational provider that has suffered a potentially very serious attack in the past few weeks. 

 

Of course Phishing emails could be the precursor to a more serious attack...

[TechMonkey]

Oh totally, and this is the issue, there are lots of case studies to show, but I think the figures are a little over blown, if a single phishing email is headlined as a cyber-attack.

 

The questions i have had in the past have asked for a single phishing email to be included as a yes to the question.  it is serious enough, without blowing it out of proportion.

[psydii]

Yeah, if they set the definition so wide that 60% of schools report being a victim,  then another way of looking at it is 40% of schools don't know they were attacked.
 

[Roberto]

3 hours ago, TechMonkey said:

Oh totally, and this is the issue, there are lots of case studies to show, but I think the figures are a little over blown, if a single phishing email is headlined as a cyber-attack.

 

The questions i have had in the past have asked for a single phishing email to be included as a yes to the question.  it is serious enough, without blowing it out of proportion.

 

I do actually agree with your overall point to be clear, but I've seen targetted phishing emails used as a form of reconnaissance so I genuinely think that there's a sliding scale here.

[mikes]

On 06/10/2025 at 11:07, NegativeKillDeath said:

 

Heres the findings from the surveys https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/cyber-security-breaches-survey-2025/cyber-security-breaches-survey-2025-education-institutions-findings#chapter-1-overview-of-the-data

 

Phishing at 89% of secondaries. Ransomware at 3% 

 

That makes more sense to me - saying 60% of schools have been hit by a cyber attack, makes me think - 60% have been ransomwared or have been extorted of data,  which would be an insane statistic - 4 comps in my county would have been affected.  

I think the 3% ransomware  and   phishing at 89% makes a lot more sense.   I'd have thought phishing would be at 99%  because surely everyone has had one of those automated phishes now and then? We get them all the time - also did the survey and I felt a bit odd saying  "We had been hit with a phishing attempt"  just because an automated phish came in and was stopped by our spam filter  as probably happens to every organisation around?