For years, cybersecurity in education has been treated as an IT problem. But in 2026, it’s become more than that. It is now, unequivocally a teaching and learning, safeguarding, and school continuity issue. With cyber incidents across UK schools continuing to rise, and the Department for Education tightening its Cybersecurity Standards, leaders need clarity, not scaremongering.
So, what school and MAT leaders actually need to know this year?
The 2025 Threat Landscape: Real Risks, Not Horror Stories
Schools sit in a uniquely vulnerable position:
Large, diverse user bases (staff, students, supply teachers, contractors, governors)
High device volumes
Legacy systems mixed with cloud-first tools
Tight budgets and limited in-house expertise
Attackers know this.
The most common threats impacting UK schools and MATs in 2025 include:
- Phishing 2.0
Email scams have evolved into targeted, multi-stage social engineering.
Now, attackers often imitate SLT or MAT executives, send credible “exam timetables”, “safeguarding notifications”, or “DfE updates” and use MFA-bypass techniques and real compromised accounts to send internal-looking messages
- Ransomware Against Whole Trusts
Ransomware groups increasingly target multiple academies at once. A single compromised school can be used as the foothold into others.
- Lateral Movement (the hidden phase)
This is where many attacks escalate. Once inside the network, even via one student Chromebook, the attacker attempts to move across VLANs, escalate privileges, find servers, MIS, backup stores in addition to reaching domain controllers.
This phase often lasts days or weeks before anyone notices.
- Supply Chain Weaknesses
Outdated switches, poorly segmented Wi-Fi, unmanaged IoT (CCTV, access control, printers, HVAC) and duplicative third-party platforms give attackers countless paths in.
None of this requires fear tactics.
These are simply the real-world patterns we see across MAT environments.
What the Latest DfE Cybersecurity Standards Actually Mean
The DfE’s updated cybersecurity standards move schools closer to enterprise-grade security expectations, yet many schools still misunderstand what is actually required in practice. From a network and infrastructure perspective, secure access and authentication now go far beyond simply enforcing strong passwords. The DfE expects multi-factor authentication (MFA) to be enabled on major systems as a baseline requirement, alongside centralised identity management that allows schools to control access consistently across platforms. In addition, admin privileges must be tightly managed, with clear role separation and restricted permissions to reduce the risk of unauthorised access or privilege misuse.
Up-to-Date Devices & Operating Systems
A challenge for mixed estates.
The requirement means:
- No unsupported OS
- Regular patching across switches, firewalls, Wi-Fi controllers
- Proactive lifecycle planning
Network Segmentation
This is often overlooked.
DfE expects schools to be able to limit the blast radius of an attack.
In practice, that means:
- IoT separated from staff and student networks
- Guest networks truly isolated
- MAT WAN consistent and monitored
Secure Backups
Offline or immutable backups, because every attacker now targets backups first.
Monitoring & Response
Even without SOC teams, schools must have visibility into:
- Login anomalies
- Suspicious network behaviour
- Device compliance
- Failed authentication patterns
Put simply:
It’s no longer enough for a network to be fast, it must be secure by design.
Why MATs Are Seeing More Multi-School Attacks
Multi-Academy Trusts are experiencing a noticeable rise in coordinated attacks because:
Standardisation multiplies impact: If one school is compromised, identical or similar credentials/settings across others provide easy access.
Flat or poorly segmented trusts: Some trusts link schools via flat networks or loosely controlled VPNs, which is perfect for lateral movement.
Administrative sprawl: Too many staff with unnecessary admin access across multiple domains or systems.
Outdated core infrastructure: Older switches, controllers and firewalls often lack modern encryption, behavioural analytics, patch support and zero trust–compatible authentication.
Attackers love systems that can’t defend themselves.
Zero Trust… Explained for Normal Schools
Zero Trust is often presented as complex and enterprise-only, but at its core, it means something refreshingly simple: “Never trust, always verify.”
For a school network, Zero Trust looks like this:
Identity is the new perimeter: Access decisions are based on who is logging in, on what device, and in what context, not on being connected to the internal network.
Every user gets the minimum access needed: Teachers don’t need access to domains, students don’t need to be on the same VLAN as servers and backups don’t need to be reachable from the main network.
Segmentation is mandatory, not optional: Break the network into smaller, safer zones.
Devices must prove they are healthy
Before they connect. Think:
- Updated OS
- No known malware
- MFA enabled
Continuous verification
A user who logs in from a trusted device at 9am is not automatically trusted at 2pm if something changes. This is all achievable for schools, without enterprise budgets.
Switchshop routinely implements Zero-Trust-aligned designs using: modern switching, improved Wi-Fi architecture, identity-first access controls, smart firewall policies and simplified network topology.
The 2026 Reality Check for Leaders
Cybersecurity is a leadership issue, not a technical one. The real questions SLTs and MAT boards should ask are:
“Do we know what’s on our network?” (You’d be surprised how many can’t answer this.)
“Can an attacker move freely if they get in?”
“Is our network designed to be resilient, or just functional?”
“Can we confidently say we meet the DfE standards?”
“Do we have consistent protection across all schools?”
If the answer to any is “I’m not sure”, then Bett UK is the perfect opportunity to talk to experts who live and breathe this work every day.
Why Should You Care?
- Cybersecurity is the single fastest-growing risk category for UK schools
- Insurance requirements are tightening
- MATs are under pressure to standardise
- DfE expectations are increasing
- Attack sophistication keeps rising
Schools want clarity, not fear. They want practical solutions, not jargon. Switchshop’s message is simple: Secure networks don’t have to be complicated. They just have to be designed properly.
