How Securus360 helped San Marino USD maximize their cybersecurity posture and improve their cyber risk score
Cybersecurity is a huge priority for the San Marino Unified School District
With a small IT staff and limited budget, maintaining and securing a large infrastructure is a big task
Public K-12 school districts like San Marino USD are up against a massive challenge when it comes to cybersecurity. To successfully protect and defend their network from threats, San Marino USD needed specialized expertise to unlock complete visibility and insight into their district's cybersecurity posture.
What CTO Dr. Stephen Choi from San Marino USD experienced before working with Securus360
One of the big priorities for our financial and county auditors is a clear and comprehensive cybersecurity risk score.
We planned to conduct annual vulnerability assessments, but they kept getting pushed back by other time-sensitive priorities, and we just didn't have the bandwidth to get it done.
Now, Securus360 proactively conducts regularly scheduled vulnerability scans, and we always have access to our cybersecurity risk score in real-time.
Like many school districts today, San Marino USD was up against high-stakes and constantly evolving cybersecurity challenges
A growing digital footprint requires new innovation and automation
With so many new tools and a higher dependency upon virtual learning, school districts are at an increased risk of attack in areas that the IT staff may be unfamiliar with. In San Marino USD's case, they weren't able to see the entire picture of their network environment and the associated risks.
IT teams are overloaded managing nonstop alerts and disparate tools
A limited IT staff means limited bandwidth. When a maxed-out IT team is forced to patch together solutions and spend valuable time sifting through every cybersecurity alert, things will fall through the cracks. San Marino USD needed a 24/7 Security Operations Center (SOC) team of experts they could count on to help them prioritize alerts and understand their true threats.
Consistent vulnerability scans kept getting pushed back by other priorities
The IT team at San Marino USD knew how vital vulnerability scans were to understanding their true cybersecurity posture. But with a small IT team, consistent, proactive vulnerability scans kept getting pushed to the side every time a new, time-sensitive technical need arose across the district. Now, Securus360 has put a proactive plan in place, conducting regularly scheduled vulnerability scans, providing San Marino USD with much more visibility into their cybersecurity posture, along with actionable information and guidance on how to remediate key findings.
Securus360 helped San Marino USD maximize their cybersecurity posture with the visibility and expertise they needed
Securus360 combines the best of AI and human insights to deploy ironclad cybersecurity services for your district. With our expertise and the additional support for your IT staff, you'll get peace of mind knowing that your systems and network are protected.
How Securus360 helped San Marino USD protect and defend their network from even the most advanced threats
AI-Powered MXDR Platform: Leverages machine learning to automatically monitor, detect and alert on any cyber threat
Automatically monitoring, detecting and alerting on cyber threats is critical to keeping sensitive data protected. Securus360’s AI-Powered MXDR Platform offers active threat hunting through machine learning and behavioral analysis to detect anomalies and unknown threats. Through this service, San Marino USD deployed multi-vector monitoring and EDR across their entire district to silence benign alerts and false positives while identifying the real threats, keeping their infrastructure protected.
24/7 Human-Powered Security Operations Center: A team of cybersecurity experts who investigate, mitigate and contain even the most advanced threats
The need for 24/7 coverage is crucial as the threat landscape to K12 organizations grows and evolves. With Securus360’s 24/7/365 SOC, San Marino USD leverages human expertise in combination with AI and Machine Learning to investigate, contain and mitigate any threat at any time. This 24/7, lightning-fast service helps eliminate San Marino USD’s’ blind spots while identifying and stopping even the most advanced threats before they can wreak havoc.
Regularly Scheduled Vulnerability Assessment: Proactively identify, prioritize and take action to mitigate vulnerabilities before they can be exploited
With Securus360, San Marino USD receives ongoing expert evaluation of the threat landscape to deliver actionable threat intel. This includes internal progress updates and reviews, along with a comprehensive periodic executive risk report. They also receive regularly scheduled security analysis and vulnerability assessments to stay ahead of the changing threat landscape.
Why CTO Dr. Stephen Choi from San Marino USD chose Securus360 as their trusted cybersecurity partner
When evaluating other cybersecurity vendors, we sifted through prices from companies quoting 5x what Securus360 quoted us. And when we’ve worked with other vendors in the past, we’d submit an issue and not hear back for days.
With Securus360 as our partner, we get everything the competition offers and more – we feel like we have an extension of our team focused on protecting student and staff identity and data. Any time I reach out to Securus360, I get an immediate response from an actual human being, not an automated message.
The Results
24/7/365 Monitoring and Defense
San Marino USD’s IT team can now sleep easy at night knowing their environment is being monitored by a team of experts. With Securus360, it’s never an automated message that’s sent — behind every alert there is always a real person who cares about their cybersecurity as much as they do.
Full Visibility Into Their Cybersecurity Posture
Through Securus360’s regularly scheduled security analysis and vulnerability assessments, San Marino USD is able to stay ahead of the changing threat landscape. Because of the 360- degree visibility into their cybersecurity posture, the San Marino USD IT team is confident their environments are always protected.
Improved Cyber Risk Score
Because risk scoring is new for school districts, most don't have an ongoing system to obtain that score. Now with Securus360, San Marino USD gets ongoing, dynamic scores with real time information. Since working with Securus360, their cyber risk score has drastically decreased.
What CTO Dr. Stephen Choi from San Marino USD says about his experience with Securus360
I wish more school districts would take advantage of the expertise and support of Securus360. I know the threats will continue to change, but I have a true, trusted partner in Securus360 and will continue to rely on them to help us defend our environments.
At Securus360, we put the protection of student and staff identity and data at the center of everything we do.
Let us give you peace of mind and confidence that your most sensitive data and environments are protected.
