Introduction
Protecting a school used to mean gates, safeguarding policies and visitor sign-in sheets. Today, it also means defending your pupils, staff and operations from cyber threats that can shut down learning overnight.
Whether you lead a single school or oversee an entire Multi-Academy Trust (MAT), cybersecurity is no longer a technical side-quest. It’s a core leadership responsibility. Attacks on education are rising sharply, and schools have become prime targets for criminals looking for quick disruption, easy ransoms and maximum publicity.
This guide breaks down what headteachers and MAT leaders really need to know, without the jargon. Let’s dive in.
Why Are Schools Being Targeted by Cybercriminals?
Education has become a hotspot for attackers for three big reasons:
High-value data, low-complexity defences
Schools hold personal information on pupils, families and staff. Exactly the type of data criminals can sell or leverage for extortion. At the same time, IT teams are often small, overloaded or outsourced, and underfunded.
Fast disruption equals fast ransom pressure
If your MIS goes down or your network locks up, learning stops instantly. Criminals know this urgency increases the likelihood of ransom payment.
Social engineering is almost guaranteed to work
In any business, social engineering is the most likely cause of successful attacks. In schools, this likelihood increases exponentially. It’s very difficult to train adult staff members to recognise phishing attempts, never mind young pupils.
The Biggest Cyber Threats Facing Schools in 2025
Ransomware Attacks on Schools
Still the number one threat in education. Ransomware can encrypt your files, lock pupils and staff out of systems, and halt timetables, safeguarding logs, payroll and attendance. Schools have already faced closures, exam delays and loss of historic pupil data due to attacks.
Related reading: Ransomware: 7 Ways to Protect Your Business
Phishing and Social Engineering
Criminals target admin teams, teachers and even pupils. One convincing email is often enough to gain full network access. Understanding the psychology behind these attacks can help your staff spot the warning signs before it’s too late, but far more importantly, understanding how to limit access is essential. Just because someone can get into one account, it shouldn’t mean they’re able to get anywhere else..
Related reading: Social Engineering Attacks: Understanding the Psychology Behind It
Supply Chain Vulnerabilities
Most schools outsource at least some IT services: cloud MIS, safeguarding tools, payroll, parent communication apps, device management and more.
Here’s the critical point: you can outsource the service, but you cannot outsource the risk.
If your supplier is breached, you still suffer the fallout. This exact pattern is behind many recent high-profile incidents across UK organisations.
Related reading: Supply Chain Cyber Attacks: Why Your Supplier’s Problem Becomes Yours
Misconfigured Cloud Services
The move to cloud tools like Google Workspace and Microsoft 365 has improved efficiency, but misconfigurations are one of the fastest-growing causes of education data breaches.
Outdated Legacy Systems
Old servers, old devices, old operating systems. Attackers love them. They’re easy entry points.
Related Reading: Operating Systems: Why is it Important to Keep Them Updated?
How to Build Cyber Resilience in Your School
Here’s how school leadership teams can build a secure, resilient environment without needing an in-house cyber specialist.
Start with Cyber Essentials
Think of Cyber Essentials like the MOT for your school’s IT. Not a guarantee nothing will go wrong, but the absolute minimum you should be doing. This means:
- Strong, unique passwords with multi-factor authentication
- Keeping all devices and servers fully updated
- Securing administrative accounts
- Applying strong filtering for email and internet
- Restricting who has access to what
- Ensuring encryption is enabled on all devices
- Regularly removing old accounts for staff and pupils
Small actions. Huge impact.
Related reading: What is Cyber Essentials? A Plain-English Guide for Business Owners
Review Your Third-Party Providers
Schools often assume their cloud MIS, filtering tools or IT contractors are secure “by default”. But attackers increasingly enter through weak vendor systems.
Ask your providers:
- When was your last penetration test?
- Do you undergo external security audits?
- How do you protect customer data?
- What is your incident response process?
- If you are breached, how will you notify us and how quickly?
If they can’t answer clearly, that’s a red flag.
Implement Regular Penetration Testing
Many MATs already carry out annual pen tests, but the quality varies massively. A proper test should look at both internal and external attack routes, include cloud platforms and remote access, and highlight real-world compromise paths rather than just theoretical issues.
Think of it like a fire drill: better to discover gaps during a controlled test than during a real attack.
Related reading: Essential Guide to Annual Pentests: Why They’re Vital for Your Security
Prepare an Incident Response Plan
If ransomware hits on a Monday morning at 8:45am, who does what?
Your plan should answer:
- Who leads the response?
- How do you isolate affected systems?
- How do you communicate with staff and parents if email is down?
- How do you continue safeguarding reporting?
- Who contacts the DfE, police or NCSC?
- How do you restore teaching quickly and safely?
Most schools don’t have this plan. The ones who do recover dramatically faster.
Train Staff Regularly
Teachers and admin teams don’t need technical training, but they do need short, simple guidance on:
- How to spot a phishing email
- What to do if something doesn’t look right
- Why USB sticks are risky
- Why passwords matter
- How to report an issue without fear of blame
Cybersecurity is 50% technology, 50% behaviour.
Protect Your Cloud Platforms
This is often the weakest point in modern schools. Make sure you have:
- MFA enforced for all staff
- Restricted admin access
- Audit logs turned on
- Geographical login restrictions
- External sharing controls
- Automatic alerts for unusual activity
A misconfigured cloud tenancy can be compromised in minutes.
Test Your Backups
Backups are essential, but useless unless tested. You should be able to restore files quickly, restore entire systems, recover cloud environments, and prove backups are secure, isolated and ransomware-resilient.
If you can’t restore your MIS or safeguarding logs, you can’t run a school.
Build a MAT-Level Cyber Strategy
For MAT leaders, the goal is consistency across all schools:
- Standardised security policies
- Centralised monitoring
- Shared IT and safeguarding systems
- Uniform staff training
- Annual MAT-wide penetration testing
- Shared incident response playbooks
Stronger together. Higher resilience. Better Ofsted readiness.
Taking Action on School Cybersecurity
Cybersecurity isn’t just an IT responsibility. It’s an operational priority.
The threat landscape has changed. Attacks are faster, louder and easier to launch than ever before, and schools are firmly in the firing line. But with the right foundations, you can significantly reduce risk, protect your community and ensure learning continues uninterrupted.
If you’re a headteacher, trust leader or school business manager, now is the time to take action. Because once systems go down, it’s already too late.