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: Tammy Buchanan; Best Practice Updates; 14 January 2025

What the proposed Government legislative proposal around cyber crime means

🛡️🖥️ Today the Government launched a consultation period about introducing legislation to counter ransomware.

: Tammy Buchanan; Information/Cyber Security; 20 November 2024

Effectively communicating during a cyber incident

📢 It's important to be prepared for when a cyber incident happens to you. Part of that preparation should include having a Cyber Incident Response Plan, and part of that plan should include how to communicate, who does the communication and what they should say.

: Tammy Buchanan; Information/Cyber Security; 11 November 2024

Safeguarding Identity in Microsoft 365: Protecting the UK Education Sector Against Cyber Threats

We are sharing some of blog posts by school ICT technicians and ICT managers that are giving their advice about keeping your school cyber secure and resilient.

: Tammy Buchanan; Best Practice Updates; 29 August 2024

Cyber Security Best Practice Area

🛡️✅ Gone are the days when cyber security issues meant accidentally downloading a virus, it has grown to mean so much more, where data and identities are stolen, fraud is committed and businesses can be shut down from a cyber attack. With that in mind we have created a cyber security best practice area to help guide and support your data protection compliance.

: Tammy Buchanan; Best Practice Updates; 28 August 2024

DfE Digital Standards for Schools and Colleges Tracker

The data protection officer is mentioned many times in the DfE Digital Standards for Schools and Colleges as someone that should either be informed or consulted with. As part of that consultation process, we would like to announce our new DfE Digital Standards for Schools and Colleges Tracker.

: Tammy Buchanan; Best Practice Updates; 28 August 2024

New Policies, Documents, Letters and Posters page

We are launching a new best practice area which has all the policies, documents and posters in one place. You can find this page in our main best practice area:

: Tammy Buchanan; Best Practice Updates; 27 August 2024

Schools and Trusts Best Practice Area

We've put all the specific school and trust related data protection guides, documents and queries into one area to make it easier for you.

: Tammy Buchanan; Best Practice Updates; 16 August 2024

The DPE Retention Schedule

We recognised that a number of our customers needed a generic retention schedule to help get them started with their records management.

: Tammy Buchanan; Best Practice Updates; 15 August 2024

Making the Rounds Update (now includes reporting)

We've updated our 'Making the Rounds', data walk, to include some central processes that should be included in data protection and cyber security compliance:

Microsoft Copilot AI generated image of computers on a world with hackers by the side

: Tammy Buchanan; Information/Cyber Security; 22 July 2024

How does the recent global IT outage affect me?

The recent news has been full of the global IT outage that affected many systems over the weekend, including airlines and patient access. Although the incident was not caused by a cyber attack, it is important to note that it was a cyber incident which affects everyone.

A cyber incident is an event with threatens the confidentiality, integrity or availability of information systems, networks or the information they contain.

Review our previous article: What's a Cyber Incident and what should we do?

Cyber incidents can be intentional or accidental and can cause major disruptions. The recently reported CrowdStrike incident caused significant global disruption. While there are huge impacts to the affected systems, for which there are now fixes available, there will be an aftermath of 'unrest' where threat actors will use people's vulnerability and concern to send phishing emails.

The NCSC has already reported an increased in phishing activity as opportunistic and malicious actors seek to take advantage of the situation. The emails could be aimed at organisations or individuals.

The NCSC has released this guidance:

Organisations should review NCSC guidance to make sure that multi-layer phishing mitigations are in place, while individuals should be alert to suspicious emails or messages on this topic and know what to look for.

Their full report can be read here: NCSC Major IT Outage

We've made a short micro learning video for you to share with staff about how they might be affected by cyber incidents like this one:

View our other free micro learning videos!

Article images created using Microsoft Copilot AI.
Micro Learning video created using Vyond AI.

What to do in the event of a Cyber Attack

Incidents or attacks where any security breaches may have taken place, or other damage was caused, should be reported to an external body.

The SLT digital lead will be responsible for assigning someone to report any suspicious cyber incidents or attacks. This person will need to report this to:

Report Fraud on 0300 123 2040, or the Report Fraud website
the DfE sector cyber team at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

You may also need to report to:

the NCSC website if the incident or attack causes long term school closure, the closure of more than one school, or serious financial damage
the ICO website within 72 hours, where a high risk data breach has or may have occurred
your cyber insurance provider (if you have one), such as risk protection arrangement (RPA)
Jisc, if you are a part of a further education institution

You must act in accordance with:

Report Fraud guidance for reporting fraud and cyber crime
Academy Trust Handbook Part 6, if you are part of an academy trust
ICO requirements for reporting personal data breaches

Police investigations may find out if any compromised data has been published or sold and identify the perpetrator.

Preserving evidence is as important as recovering from the crime.

Forward suspicious emails to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Report SMS scams by forwarding the original message to 7726 (spells SPAM on the keypad).

Little Guide to ACTION FRAUD