How Flashpoint Helps to Protect One of the Largest Public School Systems in the U.S.
About The Client
Our client is one of the largest school systems in the U.S.—its network comprising nearly 200,000 students at more than 200 schools. This case study is a snapshot of how the school systems’ security team leverages Flashpoint’s cyber threat intelligence to strengthen its security posture and prevent risk.
Table Of Contents
The Challenge
Building a world-class threat detection and risk remediation program
In order to strengthen its cyber and physical security capabilities, the cybersecurity director at one of the largest school systems in the U.S. partnered with Flashpoint to identify and combat persistent threats across three areas:
- Threat actor monitoring and alerting
- Preventing account takeover (ATO)
- Brand exposure protection
The Solution
Threat actor monitoring and alerting
The security team at one of the largest public school systems in the U.S. can quickly detect which threat actor groups are actively leveraging stolen data or involved in malicious activity that could impact its operations, students, or personnel.
Flashpoint helps security teams separate the threat from the noise so they can better understand their organizational risk apertures and prevent potential losses.
With this actionable intelligence at hand, the security team can set up custom alerts, prioritize remediation efforts, and escalate issues in a timely fashion.
Preventing account takeover (ATO)
Using the Flashpoint Intelligence Platform, the school system’s security team can easily identify if and when school-affiliated email accounts are exposed, flag these accounts, reset passwords, and restrict permissions to prevent actors from accessing sensitive data while mitigating the risk of account takeover (ATO).
Recommended reading: 395,000 Compromised Credentials and Counting: How Texas A&M Leverages Flashpoint To Mitigate Risk
Brand exposure protection and domain monitoring
The school system can identify fake or duplicate social media accounts that may be targeting its brand or enterprise. Furthermore, the security team can access observed domain phishing activity, helping it eliminate threats like typosquatting, phishing attacks, and brand impersonation through logo detection via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) technology.
The Results
Establishing standard operating procedures (SOP)
Flashpoint has helped the school implement numerous SOPs into its risk remediation program, such as working with law enforcement when scenarios demand that level of collaborative response.
Intelligence that guides prioritization
The public school system leverages Flashpoint intelligence to gain the information and context it needs to investigate potential threats, review incident details, prioritize actions, and rapidly mitigate risk.
Flashpoint’s intelligence analysts help the security team separate the risk from the noise so it can better understand its risk apertures holistically, quickly judge threats, and remediate them while also preempting and preventing future risk.