Held to Ransom: Your Classroom is at Risk from AI-Enhanced Threats

Understanding the AI connection: how artificial intelligence is accelerating and scaling online threats to schools to unprecedented levels

The AI-Threat Multiplier Effect

AI isn't just another tool for criminals—it's a force multiplier that's driving a massive increase in online threats to education. Every educator needs to understand this critical connection: AI enables threat actors to launch attacks faster, at greater scale, and with more sophistication than ever before.

This essential 1-hour online course, hosted by Professor Rose Luckin (UCL/Educate Ventures Research), focuses on the vital link between AI capabilities and the huge increase in threats targeting schools.

You'll discover:

• How AI allows threat actors to speed up attack creation—producing convincing phishing emails, deepfakes, and misinformation in seconds rather than hours
• Why AI-powered automation enables criminals to scale attacks massively—targeting hundreds of schools simultaneously with personalised content
• How AI makes each attack more effective—analysing responses in real-time and adapting tactics instantly
• Why your school's growing use of AI systems creates an expanded attack surface that threat actors can exploit
• The AI-enhanced threat landscape: from automated social engineering to sophisticated impersonation at industrial scale

This session is for you if:

• You need to understand why online threats to education have increased so dramatically
• You want to grasp the specific connection between AI capabilities and the threat increase
• You recognise your responsibility to protect learners from these scaled, AI-enhanced dangers
• You're committed to staying ahead of rapidly evolving, AI-accelerated risks

Walk away with clear understanding of how AI multiplies these threats—and what this means for your classroom. The speed and scale AI lends to threat actors demands that every educator understands this connection.

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Renowned for not only her research into the design and evaluation of educational technology and AI, Rose has spent over 30 years developing and studying AI for education, and has been named as one of the 20 most influential people in education in the 2017 Seldon List, is the only non-US winner to have received the prestigious ISTE Impact Award, and at Bett UK 2025 was presented with the Bett Global Outstanding Achievement award: the highest honour in the show.