Schools and Cyber Security: Behind the Firewall

What real cyber audits in real schools actually reveal.

Cybercrime isn’t a distant threat for UK schools. It’s happening now, right across the sector, and the numbers are hard to ignore.

In the past 12 months, 60% of secondary schools and 44% of primary schools identified a cyber security breach or attack. Both figures are higher than the 50% reported by UK businesses overall, which means schools are being targeted more than the average commercial organisation, despite having fewer resources to defend themselves.

In 2025, we were selected by the Department for Education as 1 of 6 pilot partners for the DfE Cyber Security Standard programme. That means we’ve been working directly alongside the government to help define what good cyber security looks like for schools and auditing schools against that standard in the field.

This report shares what we found. Not to scare, but because the data is striking enough that school leaders need to see it. 

The schools in this report aren’t unique, they’re representative of your peer schools, and if you’re a Headteacher or Business Manager reading this, there’s a reasonable chance your school could look similar.