Managed Cyber Security Built for Education
Enterprise-grade protection across staff, students and BYOD, without the cost of licensing every student account.
Trusted by Schools, Colleges and Universities across the UK
The Cyber Security Challenges Facing Education
Cyber security is now a core institutional priority for schools, colleges and universities. Phishing, credential theft, human error and supply chain attacks remain significant risks, with compromised identities often providing the easiest route into environments that support teaching, safeguarding, research and student experience.
Education institutions operate in increasingly digital and distributed environments, protecting thousands of staff and student identities across managed devices, personal devices and cloud services, while managing significant annual changes in the student population. Many already have strong security controls, Microsoft technology or a SIEM in place, but maintaining continuous monitoring, investigation and response alongside wider IT priorities requires dedicated capacity.
The challenge is often not the technology itself, but having the capacity and specialist resource needed to manage it effectively 24/7/365.
Why Education Needs a Different Approach
Staff and student identity risk
The scale of staff and student identities, combined with frequently changing student accounts, increases exposure to phishing, credential theft and account takeover.
Competing demands
Education IT teams must balance day-to-day support, infrastructure management, digital learning and cyber security responsibilities.
BYOD and device complexity
Personal devices, managed endpoints and connected campus technology create a broad and constantly changing attack surface.
Maintaining security platforms
Microsoft security tools and SIEM platforms require ongoing monitoring, tuning and security engineering alongside wider IT priorities.
The UK Government’s Cyber Security Breaches Survey 2025/26 found that, in the previous 12 months, breaches or attacks were identified by:
73%secondary schools
88%further education colleges
98%higher education institutions
Introducing RealProtect for Education
RealProtect for Education combines 24/7 monitoring, MDR, SIEM, Agile XIR (Extended Incident Response) and strategic guidance in one fully managed service designed to extend the capacity of your internal team.
It complements the Microsoft security capabilities available through Microsoft 365 A3 and A5 licensing, extending managed protection across your staff and student identities, and BYOD environments, with student account coverage provided at no additional per-student cost.
Protecting your education institution against:
- Phishing & Social Engineering
- Identity Compromise & Account Takeover
- Ransomware & Extortion
- Cloud & SaaS Exploitation
- Malware & Advanced Threats
- Third-Party & Supply Chain Risk
Trusted Technology and Accredited Expertise
RealProtect for Education Commercial Model
Traditional per-user security models can become prohibitively expensive when every staff and student account must be licensed individually.
RealProtect for Education removes this barrier through a staff-based licensing model, with student account coverage provided at no additional per-student cost. This enables your institution to extend managed protection across large student populations and BYOD environments without paying for every student account individually.
By complementing the Microsoft security capabilities available through Microsoft 365 A3 and A5, RealProtect helps your institution strengthen protection while maintaining predictable and sustainable costs.
Student account coverage
Extend managed protection across your student identities without a separate licence charge for every student account.
Predictable costs
Protect your large and changing student population without costs increasing directly with every account.
Greater value from Microsoft
Build on existing Microsoft 365 A3 and A5 security capabilities and maximise the value of your existing investment.
Aspire has become a trusted extension of our IT team. Their responsiveness and understanding of the pressures facing the education sector have made them a valuable technology partner.
They take the time to understand our environment, work closely with our internal team and provide practical support that helps us maintain reliable, secure services for staff and students. Knowing we have access to a team of specialists gives us added confidence as our technology requirements continue to evolve.
John McNeany
Head of Information Technology, Gateshead College
RealProtect Goes Beyond a Traditional SOC
Traditional SOC services focus on detecting threats and containing incidents. RealProtect goes further.
Delivered through Aspire’s Next-Gen Security Operations Centre, RealProtect combines AI-enhanced threat investigation, proactive threat hunting and XIR (Extended Incident Response) with specialist infrastructure, cloud and networking expertise. This helps your education institution protect complex environments, recover critical services faster and continually strengthen your resilience.
Managed Microsoft Security, SIEM and SOAR
Managed Microsoft Defender and Sentinel help your institution maximise its Microsoft 365 A3 and A5 capabilities through continuous detection, threat correlation and automated response, with Sentinel data ingestion included.
AI-accelerated Security Operations
AEGIS, Aspire’s in-house agentic AI platform, accelerates alert triage and investigation across high volumes of staff and student identities in your environment, while maintaining expert human oversight.
Threat Intelligence and Proactive Threat Hunting
Our security analysts combine intelligence from Microsoft, CrowdStrike and trusted threat intelligence sources with proactive threat hunting to identify emerging threats and suspicious activity across your environment before they become incidents.
XIR (Extended Incident Response)
When a security event becomes an incident, our security, infrastructure, cloud and networking specialists work together to give you a single, coordinated response across investigation, containment, remediation and operational recovery.
Parallel Workstream Recovery
Your critical teaching, learning and operational services are restored while investigation and remediation continue in parallel, reducing disruption and downtime.
Attack Surface Management
Continuous monitoring of your internet-facing assets and dark web exposure highlights vulnerabilities, misconfigurations and potential attack paths into your institution.
Security Concierge
Dedicated specialists provide regular service reviews, security roadmaps and practical recommendations aligned with your institution’s priorities.
Executive Reporting
Regular reporting translates operational metrics, threat trends and security posture into clear insight for your IT team, governing bodies and senior leaders.
How RealProtect Delivers Full Operational Recovery
When an incident escalates, Agile XIR brings our security, infrastructure, cloud, networking and IT operations specialists together. Forensic investigation, remediation and operational recovery run in parallel, helping you restore critical teaching, learning and operational services faster while reducing disruption.
Why RealProtect for Education is Different
Cyber security incidents rarely affect just security tooling. They disrupt teaching, learning, student services and the wider operation of your institution.
That’s why RealProtect is delivered by more than a SOC. Alongside 24/7 security analysts, you have access to specialist infrastructure, cloud, networking and modern workplace engineers who work together to investigate incidents, restore services and strengthen cyber resilience across your institution.
Backed by over 300 technical specialists, we act as your single partner across detection, response and operational recovery.
UK-based Next-Gen SOC
24/7 monitoring and incident response across your staff and student identities, devices and cloud services, backed by CREST-accredited incident response capabilities.
Full Operational Recovery
Agile XIR (Extended Incident Response) helps you restore critical teaching, learning and operational services while investigation and remediation continue in parallel.
Expertise Beyond Security
Direct access to our infrastructure, cloud, networking and modern workplace specialists when an incident affects your wider education environment.
Strategic Security Partnership
As a Microsoft Direct CSP and CrowdStrike Elite Partner, we combine specialist platform expertise with ongoing strategic guidance to help you strengthen cyber resilience across your institution.
Strengthen Cyber Resilience Across Your Institution
Protect your staff, student identities and critical services while maximising your Microsoft investment through a model designed for education.
How RealProtect for Education Goes Further
RealProtect for Education combines the monitoring, detection and containment expected from a Next-Gen SOC with proactive threat hunting, Agile XIR (Extended Incident Response) and full operational recovery, all delivered through a cost-effective commercial model designed for the education sector.
Traditional SOC
- Per-user licensing can make protecting large student populations prohibitively expensive.
- Large student populations can generate significant volumes of security activity, increasing the monitoring burden on internal teams.
- Security tools, SIEM and server protection are typically managed separately.
- Typically focused on monitoring alerts, investigating activity and containing threats.
- Recovery may sit outside the SOC’s scope and will often be handed back to the institution.
- Reporting often focuses on alerts and incidents, with less emphasis on compliance, governance and ongoing improvement.
RealProtect for Education
- A staff-based model extends protection across your student identities and BYOD environments at no additional per-student cost.
- AI-assisted triage and investigation, powered by Aspire’s in-house AEGIS platform, help you protect high volumes of student identities efficiently while maintaining expert human oversight.
- Managed Microsoft Defender, Sentinel SIEM and SOAR, with Sentinel data ingestion included, alongside CrowdStrike Falcon protection for servers.
- 24/7 UK-based MDR, AI-accelerated investigation, threat intelligence and proactive threat hunting across your identities, devices and cloud services.
- Agile XIR (Extended Incident Response) brings security and technical specialists together to help you restore critical teaching, learning and operational services.
- Attack Surface Management, dark web visibility, monthly reporting, service reviews and security roadmaps support compliance, governance and security hardening.
Established Procurement Routes
RealProtect for Education is available through recognised public sector frameworks, making it easier for schools, colleges and universities to procure managed cyber security in line with governance and purchasing requirements.
Available routes include:
- Government Commercial Agency – Cyber Security Services 3 DPS
- Government Commercial Agency – G-Cloud 15
- Scottish Government – Cyber Security Services Framework
- YPO – Network Connectivity and Telecommunication Solutions 2
- NHS Shared Business Services – Digital Workplace Solutions 2
We can help your IT and procurement teams identify the most appropriate route, define the service scope and provide the technical, commercial and pricing information needed to progress procurement.
Strengthen Cyber Resilience Across Your Institution
Protect your staff, student identities and critical services while maximising your Microsoft investment through a model designed for education.
