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Hack The Box’s latest Cybersecurity Readiness Report highlights the sector’s impressive progress: in 2023, education had one of the lowest challenge-solving rates at 7.8%. This year, it ranks as the top-performing sector, with 22.5% of challenges solved—demonstrating the power of collective action in cybersecurity preparedness.

These results highlight the significant benefits that greater funding, collaboration and upskilling can have on improving overall cybersecurity posture and reinforce the need for sectors and organizations to be proactive in making these improvements. The commentary from Haris Pylarinos, CEO of Hack The Box.

“Hack The Box’s latest Cyber Attack Readiness Report shows dramatic shifts in how specific industries are performing. In 2023, the education sector was only solving 7.8% of challenges. A year on and education was the highest performing sector, solving 22.5% of challenges. What we are seeing is that the education sector has been a prime target for cyberattacks, particularly ransomware attacks and data breaches, due to the vast amount of sensitive data they handle. This increase in attacks pushed greater investment into cybersecurity for schools, universities and education systems. In addition, the UK government has made substantial investments in strengthening cybersecurity within the education sector. For example, the UK National Cyber Security Centre has also provided specific guidelines and resources to help educational institutions bolster their defences too. Upskilling and training programmes are also much more common, helping best practice. What our data shows is that this from the level of attacks to government investment and industry action is that it is paying off. Although cyber-attacks seriously threaten organisations and people, progress can be made when there is investment in policy, collaboration, funds and upskilling. Other sectors shouldn’t wait until they are targeted to make this improvement.” - Haris Pylarinos, CEO of Hack The Box