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description: A survey by UK exams regulator Ofqual found that English secondary schools reported fewer cybersecurity incidents in the 2025/26 academic year (27%, down from...
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# England's schools are getting better at mopping up cyber incidents

**[The Register](https://daily.dev/sources/theregister)** · 4 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments

## Summary

A survey by UK exams regulator Ofqual found that English secondary schools reported fewer cybersecurity incidents in the 2025/26 academic year (27%, down from 34% two years prior) and faster recovery times, with 66% of affected schools recovering immediately, up from 55%. Phishing remained the most common incident type, followed by data breaches, hacking, and ransomware (2%). Despite improvements, 54% of teachers didn't know what security changes their school had made, and opinions were split on who owns cybersecurity responsibility. The findings contrast with a broader government survey showing much higher breach rates across educational institutions.

## Full article

daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: <https://www.theregister.com/security/2026/10/01/englands-schools-are-getting-better-at-mopping-up-cyber-incidents/5300465>

## Questions this post answers

### What percentage of English secondary schools reported a cybersecurity incident in the 2025/26 academic year?

Twenty-seven percent of English secondary schools reported a cybersecurity incident during the 2025/26 academic year, down from 29 percent the previous year and 34 percent in 2023/24. Phishing was the most common incident type, followed by data protection breaches, hacking, and ransomware, which affected 2 percent of respondents. Recovery also improved, with 66 percent of affected schools reporting immediate recovery.

_School IT leaders tracking sector-wide security trends can follow developments like this on daily.dev._

### Who is most commonly blamed for cybersecurity responsibility in UK schools?

Teachers in English secondary schools are divided: 46 percent say the IT team bears primary responsibility, 40 percent say it's shared among all staff, and only 9 percent point to senior leadership. Ofqual, the exams regulator, argues cybersecurity should be treated as a leadership responsibility rather than purely an IT issue, a view echoed by Jamf's director of education Mat Pullen.

_Anyone debating how security ownership should be split across IT and leadership can dig into cases like this on daily.dev._

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---

Tags: [#cyber](https://daily.dev/tags/cyber), [#ransomware](https://daily.dev/tags/ransomware), [#phishing](https://daily.dev/tags/phishing)

[View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/england-s-schools-are-getting-better-at-mopping-up-cyber-incidents-l597dcm1y)

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