Education one of worst affected sectors by cyber security breaches

More organisations than ever are experiencing cyber security breaches that put people’s personal information at risk, with education being one of the most affected sectors according to trend data from the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO).

Over 3,000 cyber breaches were reported to the ICO in 2023, with the education (11 per cent), finance (22 per cent), retail (18 per cent) and  sectors reporting the most incidents.

The report from the ICO has analysed the data breach reports it receives and shared lessons that can be learnt from common security mistakes. 

Solicitor Hayes Connor analysed ICO's data and found that more than one in three breaches in the education and childcare sector involved children’s data last year. 

The research suggested that basic personal identifiable data was the most common type of data being breached within education and childcare sector (85 per cent) followed by health data (29 per cent).

The analysis found the top two reasons for data breaches in the sector were data emailed to the wrong recipient and unauthorised access to data.

Stephen Bonner, deputy commissioner of Regulatory Supervision at the ICO, said: “People need to feel confident that organisations are doing as much as they possibly can to keep their personal information secure. While cyber attacks are growing more sophisticated, we find that many organisations are not responding accordingly and are still neglecting the very foundations of cyber security."

He said that there is no "single solution" to prevent cyber attacks, but that there is absolutely no excuse for not having the foundational controls in place.