Success Stories / Education

School District Boosts Security for 19,000 Students and 2,600 Employees with Adlumin Solutions

COM-0096-Customer Success Story-Education-Tooele County UtahCS LP BANNER

Challenges

They seek a Security Operations Platformto centralize data while simplifying and monitoring alerts within their network environment.
They needed a product that expanded their lean security team’s resources while being affordable, requiring minimal setup and integration.
It required a vulnerability management solution that provides a comprehensive solution solution that provides a comprehensive view of 27 schools across Southwest Utah.

Results

They have significantly reduced the time to close tickets by implementing Adlumin’s Security Operations Platform, and Managed Detection and Response offering. Delivering support ticket closures in as little as 5 minutes, and potential vulnerabilities triaged in seconds and resolved within 15 minutes.
Leverages Adlumin’s Google Workspace integration to gain greater visibility, accounting for two-thirds of its alerts.
Adlumin’s Continuous Vulnerability Management helped maintain a rapid response time, minimizing the window of opportunity for attackers.
Gained greater visibility by aggregating event management into one platform, improving the team’s productivity.

Protects 19,000 Students and 2,600 Employees

Tooele County School District, located in Tooele, Utah, is dedicated to offering an exceptional educational experience to its 19,000 students and 2,600 employees spread across 27 schools in Southwest Utah. Ensuring the safety and security of its staff and students remains a top priority.

Recognizing the growing prevalence of cyber threats and attacks on schools, Tooele County School District sought to implement robust security measures and proactive strategies to safeguard its digital infrastructure and protect sensitive information.

Tooele Required Total Visibility of Network Environment

Tooele County School District was searching for a security solution that would give its IT team complete visibility into all activities happening within its network. With the number of threats and potential compromises targeting schools across the globe, Tooele County School District required a product that would not only highlight vulnerabilities but respond to them in minutes. In addition, they needed a solution that could provide an extension to their security team.

While school is both in and out of session, Tooele County School District needs to be aware of logon activity. Adlumin’s User Entity and Behavior Analytics (UEBA),

specifically the geography analysis map, monitors where teachers and other employees log into the network and assist in addressing and identifying abnormalities. “For us, it’s hard to keep track of our [teachers] that are traveling and not traveling, and so we get into these accounts and see what’s legit and what is not,” said Alan Hansen, Chief Information Security Officer at Tooele County School District.

Increased Use of Chromebooks Requires a Secured Digital Footprint

As the usage and adoption of Chromebook and ChromeOS-powered devices continue to rise, Tooele County School District has embraced the trend. With this increase in use comes the critical need to prioritize the security of these devices, especially when cybercriminals view students as prime targets.

Tooele County School District has implemented Adlumin’s Google Workspace integration to address this concern. By leveraging this integration, they have gained greater visibility, accounting for two-thirds of their alerts through Google Workspace. This enhanced visibility allows them to identify risks associated with privileged and stale accounts.

Adlumin’s Google Workspace integration enforces access policies based on user roles, departments, or specific data types of automated security workflows. By automating security workflows, suspicious user actions can be promptly identified, leading to the disabling of user accounts if necessary. Additionally, the insights provided by Adlumin offer comprehensive details regarding policy violations and suspicious behaviors.

Minimized Window of Opportunity for Cybercriminals

Educational institutions often spread IT resources and management across campuses and faculties. This creates silos and vulnerable access points that criminals can use to infiltrate the institution and move laterally to identify critical infrastructure, academic records, and financial accounts.

With the responsibility of serving a district of 27 schools and over 19,000 students, having a platform with everything in one platform dashboard was essential. Adlumin’s one platform, one license approach provides the Tooele County School District with a centralized location to aggregate all its data.

Adlumin’s Continuous Vulnerability Management is a cloud-based solution that remediates and minimizes the window of opportunity for attackers by assessing and tracking vulnerabilities in all Tooele County School District systems. The offering also provides vulnerability scanning and patching to their servers before cybercriminals can access them.

With Greater Visibility, Fast Remediation of Security Threats Became Possible

In addition to providing Tooele County School District with complete visibility into its IT and security environment, Adlumin’s platform has armed Tooele County School District with critical insights and knowledge that have not only bolstered the school district’s overall security posture but has provided clear direction around what should be prioritized within its security program.

Specifically, Tooele County School District has leveraged Adlumin’s data and insights to prioritize clearing support tickets and immediate security issues flagged within the platform. The visibility and clear recommendations for remediation provided by Adlumin’s Managed Detection and Response offering experts have helped Tooele County School District understand what vulnerabilities and threats lurk in the IT environment and respond to immediate needs in real-time.

“Because we have Adlumin, we have more confidence in our security posture.”

– Brandon Wong, Systems Administrator at the Tooele County School District.

With the help of Adlumin’s 24×7 Security Operations Center (SOC) and the clear guidance shared alongside these tickets, Tooele County School District has significantly reduced the time it takes to close a ticket or security alert. In fact, they reported that with Adlumin, student ticket closures take as little as 5 minutes, and any potential malware identified is triaged in seconds and resolved within 15 minutes.

Specifically, Tooele County School District has leveraged Adlumin’s data and insights to prioritize clearing support tickets and immediate security issues flagged within the platform. The visibility and clear recommendations for remediation provided by Adlumin’s Managed Detection and Response Services and security experts have helped Tooele County School District understand what vulnerabilities and threats lurk in the IT environment and respond to immediate needs in real-time.

Simplicity, Affordability, Effectiveness: Win, Win, Win

Unlike other security providers that often require extensive setup and integration, Adlumin took care of the heavy lifting, leaving Tooele County School District’s team with the simple task of “setting up credentials,” said Alan Hansen, Chief Information Security Officer at Tooele County School District.

The ease of use and affordability of Adlumin’s Security Operation Platform provide the Tooele County School District with a seamless knowledge transfer and a one-stop shop for all their security needs. Thanks to the platform’s affordability, they have enhanced their security operations without breaking the bank.

This has increased their peace of mind and instilled confidence in their cybersecurity measures.

“We have a pretty small team, so [Adlumin’s Security Operations Platform and Managed Detection and Response security experts] help us aggregate all of our data to do more with fewer people,”

– Brandon Wong, Systems Administrator at the Tooele County School District.

Adlumin Security Operations Platform

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About Adlumin

Adlumin Inc. provides the enterprise-grade security operations platform and managed detection and response services that keep mid-market organizations secure. With one license and one platform, its patented technology gives organizations and solution providers everything they need for effective threat hunting, incident response, vulnerability management, darknet exposure monitoring, compliance support and much more. The Adlumin platform is feature-rich enough for organizations to operate on their own, yet built specifically to amplify the skills and capabilities of managed service providers.