For education providers, a cyberattack can be devastating and stop young people learning – and incidents are rising fast. Network security is now a priority for providers and resellers have a crucial role to play in ensuring they get the right solution.
While cyberattacks on high-profile businesses have made headlines this year, there is another worrying trend that hasn’t garnered as much attention – how many educational establishments have also suffered debilitating security breaches.
Rachel Rothwell, regional director at Zyxel Networks, points to a recent government survey that found that educational institutions are even more likely to be hit by a cyberattack than businesses. “An astonishing 60% of secondary schools have been hit in the past year and in further and higher education, the proportion is even higher – 85% and 91%, respectively,” she notes. “For primaries, the figure was still very high at 44% – about the same level of businesses that have detected attacks.”
As Mat Pullen, director for education at Jamf, notes, an attack can have serious consequences. “A security breach isn’t only damaging to systems that IT look after, it ultimately impacts on student learning,” he says. “Attacks potentially resulting in staff being unable to access online learning resources, or the school itself being forced to temporarily close – all resulting in lost learning time.
“If primary schools have to close, that can also potentially force parents to stay at home to look after their children. Suddenly, a cyberattack against a school is impacting businesses across other sectors.
“In an extreme case, 14 schools in Shropshire were attacked, meaning that students couldn’t submit their GCSE or A-level coursework. Missing coursework deadlines would have been highly stressful for students and teachers, especially given that it often reflects months of work which can shape future education and career paths.”
Graham Foxwell, ICT product marketing lead at Kyocera Document Solutions UK, adds that under UK data protection law, institutions have strict obligations to keep personal information secure. “The new Data Use and Access Act 2025 adds further clarity on safeguarding children’s data and managing access rights,” he adds.
“In recent incidents, schools hit by ransomware have faced complete IT shutdowns. Both live and backup data encrypted. In one case, the building control system was affected, preventing staff from regulating temperatures, while access to parent contact details was lost. This created serious safeguarding challenges.”
Educational institutions are prime targets, due to their vast digital infrastructures, adds VimalRaj Sampathkumar from ManageEngine. “With many students using their own devices – including mobile applications – there are plenty of opportunities for attackers to strike,” he says. “Education providers also tend to have open networks, available for any device to connect to. This means it’s easy for viruses, malware and hackers to enter and create havoc on the network especially with the growing range of highly sophisticated phishing attacks, such as deep fakes.”
Trends
With schools and universities increasingly appreciating the threat they face from cybercriminals, their demands of network security are changing. “Schools and universities are increasingly moving towards managed, outcome-based services instead of owning and maintaining complex infrastructure themselves,” says Ed Knight, MSP lead, Paessler GmbH.
“They want complete visibility across their entire digital environment; on-premises, cloud and IoT so they can identify issues before they escalate. Automation, clear SLA reporting and faster detection and resolution are top priorities. Education customers are also looking for subscription-based models that align with academic budgeting and help them manage costs more predictably.”
Scott Rogers, business unit director – security, UK & Ireland at TD SYNNEX, notes that ransomware remains a major worry and there is growing concern about how AI can be used to target schools. “As a result, we are seeing increased interest in advanced techniques such as privileged access management, security information and event management, Secure Access Service Edge and zero trust network access. We are also seeing more enquires about security-as-a-service and Security Operation Centre-as-a-Service offerings.”
Graham agrees that education providers increasingly demand zero-trust architectures, multi-factor authentication and endpoint protection. “There is also a push for solutions that are simple to manage with limited IT resources, while meeting Department for Education cyber security standards and, for colleges, Cyber Essentials certification,” he says.
“One recurring theme from IT managers in schools is the pressure on time. Many schools have limited teams. This means decision-makers are frequently prioritising solutions that automate maintenance tasks and support rapid issue resolution. Tools that free up time and simplify remediation are increasingly in demand, allowing IT managers to focus on core operations and improving the classroom experience.”
Rachel agrees that simplicity is key. “A small primary school and many secondaries won’t have the resources to manage their own cybersecurity in the way that they would like to,” she says. “Academies, trusts and local authorities may have dedicated IT staff, but even they are often shared between multiple sites. This is why a lot of schools – at primary, secondary and FE levels – now rely on services providers to manage their infrastructure and security and ensure that licences and policies are kept up to date.”
Components of solutions
When putting together solutions for education providers, there are various components that should be considered. “Effective solutions for education must combine continuous network monitoring, multi-site visibility, and simple, actionable insights,” says Ed.
“Key elements include automated alerting for critical systems such as Wi-Fi, DNS, and IoT devices; built-in SLA and compliance reporting; and easy integrations with existing ITSM or ticketing tools. Solutions like PRTG Enterprise Monitor allow MSPs to centralise monitoring across entire school trusts or districts, while still delivering tailored dashboards and reports to individual schools. This ensures reliable connectivity, optimised bandwidth and minimal classroom disruption.”
Dray Agha, senior manager of security operations at Huntress, agrees that identity security must be central. “Enforce multifactor authentication, least privilege, timely deprovisioning and centralised logging so stolen credentials cannot give attackers easy lateral movement,” he says.
Mat says education providers must think about building an internet safety framework. “This means implementing content filtering to automatically restrict inappropriate material and deploying threat prevention software to mitigate and prevent cyber threats,” he says. “Good cyber hygiene standards are a cost-effective way of improving network security, including the implementation of MFA and rigorous patching processes.
“However, there needs to be a balance. If it is too restrictive, educators simply won’t use it; too open, and you risk attacks. This calls for communication between IT and end users to fully understand both sides’ needs.”
Graham adds that as Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) policies are common in UK schools, network security strategies must evolve to accommodate personal devices. “This includes secure onboarding, device-level access controls and network segmentation to prevent unauthorised access and data leakage,” he notes.
Rachel adds that for most schools, the key element will be the firewall that sits at the entry point to the network – a unified security gateway that provides protection against all kinds of threats and secure access as well. “But it needs to be much more than that – WiFi access points and 5G routers will need to be protected and ideally someone will be keeping a constant watch over the network activity and security settings,” she says.
“We’d usually recommend that a school makes use of a managed security service. From a partner perspective, providing not only the networking devices, but also the monitoring and management services that provide that added layer of comfort and security for a school, is the best way to approach the education market.”
Reseller conversations
When talking to customers about network security, there are various topics that resellers should cover. Ed says the focus should be on outcomes rather than individual tools. “Reduced downtime, faster incident resolution and improved learning continuity,” he says. “They can emphasise how proactive monitoring supports network resilience, simplifies audits and demonstrates compliance through transparent SLA reporting.
“Highlighting scalability and quick deployment is also important, particularly for multi-school environments that need central oversight but local autonomy. With budgets under pressure, predictable subscription models help schools modernise without large upfront costs.”
Dray agrees that the focus should be on outcomes. “Explain how a solution reduces downtime, protects student data and meets regulator expectations, and include service level commitments for response and recovery,” he adds. “Offer identity services as part of the package including MFA rollout, account lifecycle management and user training so access risks are dealt with as part of the overall security posture.”
Graham says that resellers should emphasise solutions that meet UK data protection requirements and align with Department for Education cyber security standards. “Offering managed services for continuous monitoring is a strong differentiator,” he says. “It is also important to demonstrate how the solution protects against ransomware and phishing attacks, which remain the most common threats facing schools and colleges. Highlighting BYOD support, such as secure integration of personal devices and scalable MDM, can be a key selling point.”
VimalRaj adds that resellers should reiterate that, no matter how strong their cybersecurity posture is, a customer should have an incident plan in place and be backing up their data regularly.
“It’s also important to stress to customers that they are ensuring they eliminate software and firmware vulnerabilities by staying up to date with released patches,” he says. “Vulnerabilities, if exploited, can result in a major cyberattack, so it’s imperative to ensure that they are prioritised and remediated immediately.”
Future
Ed says it is expected that MSP-first adoption with continue to grow as education institutions outsource more of their network operations to trusted partners. “Monitoring and security capabilities will increasingly converge, giving IT leaders a unified view of performance, risk, and compliance,” he adds.
“Automation will play a greater role in detection and remediation, reducing time-to-resolution. We will also see growing demand for compliance-ready reporting as schools seek to demonstrate cyber resilience to boards and regulators. Ultimately, the goal is greater reliability and peace of mind, keeping the focus on teaching rather than troubleshooting.”
Dray adds that identity first and zero trust approaches will accelerate alongside automation and AI driven detection. “Also, expect more emphasis on identity hygiene, continuous authorisation and regulatory pressure on ransomware readiness.”
Graham agrees that we should expect AI-powered threat intelligence, cloud-native security tools and hyper-automated compliance reporting to become standard. “With attacks growing more sophisticated, proactive strategies and intelligent, automated defences will dominate,” he adds. “Resellers who can deliver future-proof, layered security will lead the market.”
Scott adds that a shift towards more advanced threat detection solutions that will safeguard schools against any out-of-the-ordinary activity on a network, and more adoption of SaaS and managed security services will continue. “I also think we will see more partnerships forming between channel businesses that have specialist skills in key areas of cybersecurity,” he adds. “It’s a challenge to keep pace with all the developments taking place in digital security and more partners are starting to make use of our in-house expertise to ensure they can provide the best advice and solutions to their customers.”
VimalRaj agrees that 2026 will be the year of convergence and collaboration in cybersecurity for education. “Schools and universities will increasingly move towards security-as-a-service models such as managed endpoint protection, SOC-as-a-service, and automated patching, delivered through trusted channel partners,” he says.
“For resellers, the opportunities lie in offering bundled, value-driven solutions that combine compliance readiness, threat visibility and automation, enabling education customers to achieve more with less.”
