Introduction
UK higher education institutions have become prime targets for cyber attackers over the past several years. With their vast digital estates, valuable intellectual property, and often fragmented security controls, universities and colleges present an attractive and vulnerable target landscape. The 2025 DSIT Cyber Security Breaches survey highlighted this point, reporting that 91% of higher education institutions identified a breach or attack in the past year. [1]
This blog explores how the attack surface in UK higher education has evolved, the unique challenges faced by the sector, and why comprehensive attack surface management has become essential for protecting these vital institutions.
Digital transformation’s double-edged sword
The COVID-19 pandemic dramatically accelerated digital transformation across UK higher education. What might have been a gradual five-year evolution was compressed into mere months as institutions rapidly deployed remote learning capabilities, cloud services, and digital collaboration tools.
While this transformation enhanced educational delivery, it also dramatically expanded the attack surface. Some of the key challenges this presented to the industry included:
- The rapid adoption of cloud services created new security boundaries and increased complexity
- Remote learning platforms expanded the potential attack surface
- The pressure to deploy new digital tools being at conflict with thorough security testing
In many cases, institutions had to adapt on the fly—implementing new technologies without all the usual security review processes.
Targeted threats against UK academic research
UK universities aren’t just experiencing generalised attacks—they’re facing sophisticated, targeted campaigns focused on valuable research proliferated by nation states looking to undermine national security.
In a briefing to leading universities, MI5 warned institutions of the threats they face from nation states. [2] With academic research at the forefront of pioneering technologies, they are attractive targets for state-backed attackers looking to boost their own militaries or economies. This enhanced threat means that universities or research institutions need to ensure they have adequate security measures in place to protect against such attacks.
The National Protective Security Authority (NPSA) offers detailed advice on the risks faced by research institutions and the essential steps they should take to ensure their valuable research remains secure against compromise. [3]
The BYOD challenge and student devices
No sector faces a Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) challenge like higher education. UK universities typically support thousands of student-owned devices connecting to their networks daily, devices over which the institution has minimal security control.
The Cyber Security Breaches Survey 2025 highlighted this blind spot in higher education, with 81% of institutions allowing personal devices onto their network. [1] A review from the University of Oxford showed that in one month, over 100,000 unique devices connected to their network, and that was in 2022. [4]
In addition, higher and further education institutions experienced one of the highest incident rates of phishing (97%) and viruses, spyware, or malware (42%) attacks. [1]
The challenge facing security teams within higher education is unique in terms of scale, frequency of attacks and the limits of their resources.
Decentralised IT governance and shadow IT
UK higher education institutions traditionally operate with decentralised IT governance models, where individual departments and research groups maintain significant autonomy. While this enables innovation, it creates profound security challenges.
One of the most common challenges facing security teams is Shadow IT.
Dealing with so many stakeholders and decentralised IT systems means that unmanaged devices and services can quickly overwhelm even the most well-equipped teams. The addition of these Shadow IT assets leaves educational institutions open to additional threats, including data theft and exploitation of services or devices. [5] IBM’s Data Breach report 2024 highlighted this key issue across all businesses, with shadow data being responsible for 1 in 3 data breaches in 2024. [6]
The financial impact of evolving threats
The financial implications of security breaches in higher education are substantial. IBM’s Data Breach report 2024 found that the average cost of a data breach across all sectors reached $4.88 million in 2024 an increase of 10% compared to last year. [6]
For educational institutions, the costs are compounded by:
- Research funding losses when security controls are deemed inadequate
- Intellectual property theft with long-term financial implications
- Reputational damage affecting student recruitment
The compliance landscape
UK higher education institutions navigate an increasingly complex compliance environment. Between GDPR, the NIS2 Directive, and the NCSC’s Cyber Assessment Framework, universities must demonstrate robust security controls across their entire digital estate. [7]
The stakes are particularly high for institutions conducting research with international impact. The Information Commissioner’s Office has made it clear that educational institutions must maintain rigorous data protection standards, with significant penalties for non-compliance. [8]
The path forward: attack surface management
The evolving attack surface in UK higher education demands a more sophisticated approach to security management. Traditional periodic vulnerability scanning and perimeter defences are woefully inadequate for institutions with such complex, distributed digital environments.
An effective attack surface management solution can provide many benefits to organisations of all sizes. It is particularly useful to the education sector as it helps identify and reduce blind spots across their digital estate and ensures resources can be utilised more efficiently. By implementing continuous attack surface management capabilities, vulnerabilities can be detected sooner, significantly reducing remediation times.
Conclusion
The attack surface in UK higher education has undergone tremendous expansion and evolution, creating unprecedented security challenges. The combination of valuable intellectual property, decentralised governance, limited security resources, and sophisticated adversaries creates a perfect storm of risk.
For cyber security professionals working in this sector, comprehensive attack surface management has become essential rather than optional. By gaining continuous visibility into their evolving digital estate, prioritising vulnerabilities based on actual risk, and streamlining remediation workflows, institutions can better protect their critical assets despite resource constraints.
Hexiosec ASM is an attack surface management solution developed and supported by cyber security engineers with experience across the UK government, intelligence, and defence communities. This expertise enables us to create a solution that assists cyber security professionals in managing their attack surfaces more effectively. Hexiosec is now available through Jisc’s Chest platform, giving their customers access to our solution through a well-established buying channel, and with exclusive discounts.
Register for our upcoming launch webinar in collaboration with Jisc
on Thursday 5th June at 11:00am to learn more about this new agreement and how effective attack surface management can improve your organisation’s security.
References
- [1] DSIT Cyber Security Breaches Survey 2025
- [2] MI5 Warning to Higher Education
- [3] NPSA Trusted Research Guidance for Academia
- [4] University of Oxford Internet Connected Devices
- [5] NCSC Guidance on Shadow IT
- [6] IBM Data Breach Report 2024
- [7] NCSC’s Cyber Assessment Framework
- [8] ICO UK GDPR Guidance
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