England's schools are getting better at mopping up cyber incidents

England’s secondary schools are seeing fewer reported cyber incidents and much faster recovery, with two-thirds restoring operations immediately and fewer incidents causing critical damage. However, the data also highlights weak security ownership and maturity: many staff don’t know what changes were made, responsibility is still seen as an IT issue rather than a leadership mandate, and training is often ineffective. For CIOs and technology leaders, the strategic takeaway is that resilience is improving, but lasting risk reduction will require stronger governance, clearer accountability, tested backups, and better staff awareness—not just technical controls.