A cybersecurity incident can cancel lessons, leak sensitive safeguarding data, and cost schools millions in recovery. We’ve seen ransomware lock staff out of files mid-GCSE season, and countless schools forced to close due to severe IT outages. 

Yet many leaders still see cybersecurity as an ‘IT issue’. It isn’t. It’s a leadership issue. The Department for Education expects academy trusts to assign a senior leader responsible for cybersecurity and advises all schools to do the same. 

It’s not hard to see why. Only leaders have the authority to make it a whole-school priority, properly resource it, shape culture to support it, and ensure governors ask the right questions. 

In this session, we will take a deep dive into the findings of The State of School Cybersecurity, a global primary research study - with expert analysis from the Secure Schools team who wrote the report.