Schools and hospitals ‘very likely’ to be hacked

Britain’s schools and hospitals are “very likely” to suffer a “large-scale loss or hijack” of their websites, the government has admitted.

Officials have said that the internet domains of public sector websites are particularly vulnerable to being exploited by “hostile actors”.

A hack could lead to a “significant loss of information and reputation”, officials concluded.

The Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) also said it was “likely” not to be prepared for a significant cyberattack that could “potentially contribute to a national crisis”.

The NHS has faced a series of damaging cyberattacks. Last year, doctors at two big hospital trusts in London were forced to cancel all elective inpatient procedures and admissions after a lab that processes pathology tests was hacked.

Richard Horne, the chief executive of the National Cyber Security Centre, wrote in a letter to The Times in May that organisations “must operate in a way that minimises the risks”, adding that freely available advice is “not being followed nearly enough across the UK”.

Read full story (paywalled)

Source: The Times, 3 August 2025