A Day in the Life of a Cyber Superhero
Ever wondered what it takes to keep schools safe from cyber threats?
At NYES Digital, our Principal Support Officer, Jack Bowyer, plays a critical role in safeguarding education environments. From tackling complex technical incidents to leading on cyber security response, the role demands precision, proactive thinking, and a deep understanding of evolving risks.
In this article, we’ll take you behind the scenes of a typical day in the role, covering daily routines, essential security checks, and real-life examples of how we respond to cyber incidents. Plus, discover practical tips for schools to prevent breaches and protect sensitive data.
Ever wondered what it takes to keep schools safe from cyber threats?
My day-to-day role covers a lot of bases for NYES Digital. My primary responsibility as a Principal Support Officer is to look at some of the more problematic or advanced incidents that our customers raise with us.
My cyber security background puts me in a great position to be the technical lead for any incoming cyber incidents.
How do you usually start your workday – any specific routines or priorities?
I then perform a similar check with Sophos, our antivirus software. Again, just to make sure everything looks as it should.
The final check I like to perform is the Office 365 health check. Office 365 provide a portal that let you see every ongoing fault with the entire suite. This can be really handy in quickly ascertaining if something is a user issue, or a global issue that is already being looked at by Microsoft.
What are the key tasks or responsibilities you handle daily?
Can you give an example of a challenging cyber threat you’ve dealt with?
A handful of our schools have their own ‘administrator’ account that allow them to create accounts for new staff and provide password resets quickly. Recently, we had a cyber incident where we believed the victim of a cyber incident just so happened to be on the administrator account.
A compromised administrator account poses a massive danger, so we had to act quickly and confidently to disable the account and perform the anti-virus checks on the potentially affected devices. Our geolocation tools showed us where this attack had originated from and with the 365 reporting, we were able to see what files had been accessed.
The additional complexity of this particular incident helped shape our response to future incidents and helped us to create our own scripts to assist with future cyber incidents
What advice can you give to schools to help lower the risk of a cyber attack?
Only click on links in emails if they come from someone you trust. Phishing attacks are getting more sophisticated so if you would like some training on spotting phishing attempts, look into buying BoxPhish through NYES Digital for companywide training on Phishing.
Finally, if you do click a link in an email by mistake, the very first thing you should do is to ring our helpdesk and let them know. Tel: 01609 53 6086
Dealing with these things quickly is very important, so the sooner you can let us know, the better.
What should schools do if they think they have had a breach?
If schools think they have suffered a breach or any other kind of cyber incident, the first thing they should do is ring the helpdesk on 01609 53 6086.
Our first line agents will help take all the information and take any immediate actions that are required.
Or check out the NYES Digital service page: NYES Digital