As schools across the United States are beginning a new academic year, the looming threat of cyberattacks casts a shadow over the education industry. According to Check Point Research, the education sector is one of the most attacked industries by ransomware. Ransomware can lead to the loss of sensitive and personal data from students and teachers. And according to the U.S. Government Accountability Office, cyber-attacks can also cause a loss of learning time ranging from three days to three weeks, in addition to financial losses for school districts between $50,000 to $1 million.
Protecting sensitive information from cyber attackers is no small task. Especially for organizations that hold a plethora of sensitive data, such as the Marple Newtown School District, a K-12 public school district in southeastern Pennsylvania educating more than 3,600 students. “We’re responsible to students, families and the community for protecting data,” explains Christopher Lee, Director of Technology for Marple Newtown School District. “With the growing frequency of attacks, we need to ensure that we are implementing superior security capabilities while making security easy to manage for our technology team.”
To safeguard their students’ and employees’ personal, academic, financial, and health data, Marple Newton School District decided to partner with Check Point Software Technologies. This partnership enables Lee and his team to take a holistic approach to cybersecurity, preventing attacks before they can disrupt the school district’s operations.
Within hours of implementing Check Point’s comprehensive and collaborative security solutions, Lee and his team discovered a rogue server that had been operating undetected for quite some time. The team was able to quickly locate and decommission the server before it could cause any more damage.
With the school district under increased pressure to protect their data, implementing a solution that can automate and streamline cybersecurity workflow was critical. Marple was able to get ahead of cyber-attacks by preemptively identifying them, as opposed to detecting them when it was too late. “A key benefit of Check Point is the support and the knowledge base they provide us, not only from a technology standpoint but also in best practices,” says Lee. In a world where the number of cyber threats grows every day, school districts and organizations, in general, need a partner that offers the best-in-class technology solutions that help minimize manual effort, reduce false positives, and optimize their security stack.
To learn more about how Marple Newton School District is preventing cyberattacks and protecting its students and employees, visit: https://www.checkpoint.com/customer-stories/marple-newton-school-district/