How Adlumin Empowers a School District to Secure Over 110,000 Endpoints

A Tech-Driven School District Manages 110,000 Endpoint Devices 

Granite School District, located in Salt Lake Valley, Utah, is a prominent educational institution serving over 60,000 students across 86 schools. As the third largest district in Utah and among the largest public-school districts nationwide, Granite School District is a significant pillar in the community, doubling as one of the state’s largest employers with a workforce of more than 7,500 full and part-time employees.   

Leveraging technology to enhance learning, Granite School District has achieved a notable milestone with its 1-1 initiative. In addition, the cybersecurity team is progressively shifting towards embracing cloud-based solutions. Currently, they have a hybrid IT environment. Overseeing this extensive technological infrastructure is a dedicated cybersecurity team of seven experts responsible for safeguarding the digital interfaces and data of all 86 schools within the district.  

Adlumin Provides a Unified Security Operations Platform 

Granite School District’s previous setup required multiple logins, which was insufficient to track issues and lacked timely alerts, resulting in a reactive approach to cybersecurity. Jeff Darling, Granite School District’s Network Security Officer, mentioned, “We used to feel like we were always playing catch-up and putting out fires.”  

The district’s search for a more proactive cybersecurity solution led them to Adlumin through various cybersecurity groups within Utah, where other school districts share resources and recommendations. Adlumin, which has a reputation for being a well-known and trusted cybersecurity solution within Utah, distinguished itself against six other cybersecurity companies. Adlumin’s MDR services met all their requirements, offering advanced capabilities at a fraction of the cost of different vendors.

With its implementation, the district could finally anticipate and remediate threats before they escalated, placing them ahead of the game in their security efforts. Darling engages with the Adlumin platform and emphasizes its efficiency, noting, “I spend about an hour a day on the Adlumin platform and responding to tickets. For what we get out of that one hour a day, I will happily spend that time.” 

Adlumin Seamlessly Ingests Data from Multiple Sources 

Granite School District leverages Adlumin to ingest logs from numerous systems, including active directories, firewalls, content-filtering platforms, and various cloud providers. This capability centralizes data, providing deeper insights into security alerts and enabling more efficient IT workflows. Adlumin’s vendor-agnostic approach has been instrumental in maximizing the value of the district’s security investments. As a result, the district enjoys complete visibility across all 86 schools.

In addition, Granite School District also implemented a new service desk system called Halo. Halo and Adlumin, working together, aim to streamline its cybersecurity and IT service management operations. Adlumin identifies potential security issues and sends automated alerts to Halo, which generates service tickets and assigns them to the appropriate team.  

The integrations have proven vital, especially during a recent cyberattack that attempted to impersonate user accounts. Adlumin’s timely alerts led to quick ticket generation in Halo, significantly enhancing the district’s response time. The team was able to transition from reactive to proactive measures. Adlumin’s Security Orchestration, Automation, and Response (SOAR) capabilities further strengthened its defense by allowing the district to block logins from outside the U.S. while maintaining flexibility for employees who travel internationally. 

This seamless interaction ensures that issues are quickly addressed and remediated, with Halo sending alerts back to Adlumin once tickets are completed. “Adlumin can look at and ingest all of our different resources. We have a number of systems that don’t like to talk to each other, and with Adlumin, we are able to take all those various systems and ingest them to be able to take action on them,” says Darling. 

Outsources Expertise from Adlumin’s Threat Experts 

Recognizing the constant shift in the sophistication of cyber threats, Granite School District needed to outsource its cybersecurity needs. With a lean team of seven IT members primarily focused on managing day-to-day operations, the district faced challenges maintaining around-the-clock cybersecurity defenses.

Rather than navigating the complexities and costs associated with hiring an internal threat hunter, a highly specialized role that would require significant resources and might still fall short of comprehensive protection, the district chose to leverage Adlumin’s expertise. By partnering with Adlumin, the district benefits from an entire team of cybersecurity professionals, including threat intelligence experts, engineers, MDR specialists, and a dedicated customer success team. 

“Using Adlumin means we don’t have to worry about hiring a person internally to do what Adlumin does,” said Darling, highlighting the value of outsourcing to a specialized organization, he continues, “Adlumin provides an entire team of experts, negating the need for us to hire new personnel.” 

In today’s environment, where cyber threats are more sophisticated than ever, Darling firmly believes that internal teams alone cannot match the proficiency of specialized organizations like Adlumin. This partnership enables the district to stay ahead of potential threats without overextending its internal resources, ensuring continuous and comprehensive protection. 

Continuous Partnership with Adlumin 

Granite School District’s ongoing partnership with Adlumin exemplifies the power of partnership and adaptive cybersecurity solutions. This dynamic relationship was highlighted when an IT team member at the district took an initial recommendation from Adlumin and expanded it.  

Adlumin suggested incorporating its SOAR IP block list into the district’s firewall settings. Granite School District then developed a customized script to extract individual IPs into Azure conditional access, effectively blocking harmful IPs both at the network and user login levels. This ensures that only authorized logins from approved locations are allowed, adding an extra layer of protection. 

The collaboration with Adlumin has allowed Granite School District to co-manage and customize its cybersecurity framework based on telemetry and research, expanding the value of Adlumin’s integration with Azure. Adlumin’s responsiveness and customer-centric approach enable the district to act quickly. The strong partnership between Granite School District and Adlumin reflects how a continuous partnership, and adaptive solutions can lead to improvements in cybersecurity, ensuring a safer and more secure educational environment.