UK: NCSC Offers Education Organizations Free Cyber Services

All UK schools and education service providers can now benefit from a range of free website security services provided by the UK government.

The UK’s National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) announced on October 15 that its Protective Domain Name System (PDNS) for Schools is being extended to more educational settings across the UK, including multi-academy trusts, academies, independent schools and school internet service providers.

Launched in 2017 and renewed for three years in April 2024 with new partners Cloudflare and Accenture, the UK government’s PDNS for Schools program offers free services preventing access to websites known to be malicious and limiting access to domains hosting malware, ransomware and spyware.

One-Third of English Schools Faced a Cyber Incident in 2023/24

The program is part of a broader NCSC initiative to improve schools’ cybersecurity, with figures from the UK’s Office of Qualifications and Examinations Regulation (Ofqual) showing that over a third of schools and colleges in England have experienced a cyber incident during the last academic year.

Spencer Starkey, VP of EMEA at SonicWall, also noted that his firm’s 2024 Global Threat Report has identified that over the last year, the UK education sector has seen an explosion of cryptojacking (up 84398%) and Internet-of-Things (IoT) malware attacks relating to Internet-of-Things (IoT) (up 3713%).

Meanwhile, generally malware attacks targeting UK education organizations were down 16% and ransomware attacks were down 77% during the same period.

Sarah Lyons, NCSC deputy director for economy and society, commented: “I encourage all schools to take advantage of this opportunity to strengthen their cyber resilience and ensure a safer digital future for students and staff alike.”

All UK-based educational organizations can sign up for ‘PDNS for Schools’ by asking their DNS provider to register for PDNS through MyNCSC.