More UK Schools Are Recovering Faster from Cyber Incidents

When incidents take place, two-thirds (66%) of schools are now able to recover immediately, up from 55% in the prior academic year.

Regular backups and a clear response plan can make a huge difference when things go wrong.” However, the data revealed that, for a plurality of schools, cybersecurity is in fact still treated as a problem solely for the tech team.

The government’s Office of Qualifications and Examinations Regulation (Ofqual) released new figures on October 1 to coincide with Cyber Security Awareness Month.

Asked who is primarily responsible for cybersecurity, nearly half (46%) of responding teachers said their IT team, 40% said all staff, and only 9% claimed senior leadership played a role.

Mat Pullen, director for education at Jamf and a former secondary school teacher and university lecturer, said it’s encouraging that the sector is improving cyber resilience.

Although over half (55%) of the secondary schools surveyed claimed to have already taken action to protect against cyber-attacks, that leaves a significant share that have yet to put in place measures such as implementing a cybersecurity policy, carrying out risk assessments, and setting up backup and recovery procedures.

It revealed that the share of schools experiencing a cyber incident has fallen consistently over recent years: from 34% in 2023-24 to 29% in 2024-25 and 27% for 2025-26.

This might explain why many schools are still failing to prioritize cyber initiatives.

Critical damage from attacks has also fallen, down to 7%.