The National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) has made two defence tools available to schools free of charge.
It has encouraged them to sign up for Mail Check, which assists security configuration and reporting for email, and Web Check, which provides support in identifying and fixing common security issues in websites.
Mail Check is designed to help technical teams assess and improve anti-spoofing controls to prevent attackers sending emails pretending to be from an organisation, and email privacy measures.
Web Check scans websites to check for common vulnerabilities and sends a report to the user organisation flagging any issues with advice on how to fix them.
Vital controls
Sarah Lyons, NCSC deputy director for economy and society resilience, said: “Technology plays a central role to the way schools operate, so it’s vital they have the right controls in place to identify security issues and fix them promptly.
“By signing up to our pioneering Mail Check and Web Check services, schools can help to defend their email servers and websites from common cyber threats with a few actionable steps.
“We strongly encourage schools to use these free tools to help make the most of modern technology in as safe a way as possible.”
NCSC pointed out that a recent Web Check scan of 10,800 college and university domains showed the service had alerted users to more than 2,700 urgent findings. Having been notified and prompted with NCSC mitigation advice, users have so far managed to fix more than 92% of these findings.
In addition, one university used Mail Check to spot 36,642 malicious emails sent from its domain in just two weeks.
