CASE STUDY
Protecting Sunnyside School District’s Mac Endpoints from Evolving Education-Focused Threats
Lean IT team gains enterprise-grade Mac security with fast deployment and remote visibility
Established in 1895, Sunnyside School District has a long history of providing K–12 education to students in Washington state. Today, the district educates nearly 7,000 students across eight schools and boasts modern facilities with state-of-the-art, student-friendly technology. With a seasoned and lean IT team of four, keeping student and staff machines safe and protected from malware, malicious browser extensions, and other threats was a top concern.
THE CHALLENGE
Protecting Mac endpoints from evolving education-focused threats
Cybercriminals have a lot of tricks up their sleeves when targeting schools, and making bogus offers for free online teaching resources is a popular one.
“On the internet, nothing is truly free. And we started to see an uptick in malware issues with teacher offers for free worksheets,” said David Peterson, IT Coordinator for Sunnyside SD, adding that “it became readily apparent almost immediately that we needed some protection on our Mac machines that we could also support remotely, regardless of where the machine was located.”
With limited staff and thousands of devices to manage, Sunnyside SD needed a solution that could deploy quickly, operate remotely, and provide strong protection without adding complexity.
The goals were to:
- Protect student and staff Mac machines from malware, malicious browser extensions, and other evolving threats
- Enable remote protection and management of endpoints regardless of on- or off-campus location
- Deploy endpoint security quickly across thousands of devices with minimal IT overhead
- Improve visibility into the security posture of all machines from a single cloud-based console
- Reduce malware-related disruptions for students, staff, and the IT helpdesk
- Support a lean IT team without adding complexity or additional staffing
THE SOLUTION
Education site license with fast deployment and remote management
Sunnyside School District deployed an Education Site License for:
- ThreatDown Endpoint Detection and Response
- ThreatDown Endpoint Detection and Response for Servers
Given the urgency and limited time to adopt a solution, Peterson knew he needed to select a trusted endpoint protection product. Narrowing the field of choices was simple. ThreatDown had always been the IT team’s go-to solution to support their malware cleanup efforts. Time and again, it consistently worked effectively.
Rolling out ThreatDown proved to be supported and straightforward.
“Deploying ThreatDown to our 2,800 Macs was really, really fast. We got quality support from a ThreatDown engineer, and we started pushing the product out during that call,” said Peterson, noting that “from the time we cut the purchase order, we were fully deployed in less than a week. “By the time his plane landed, ThreatDown MDR had already detected the threat, analyzed it, addressed it within seconds, and delivered detailed reporting.”
— David Peterson, IT Coordinator, Sunnyside School District
THE RESULTS
Robust malware detection, remediation, and measurable IT efficiency gains
After deploying ThreatDown Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR), the product immediately began scanning all machines to uncover hidden malware and troublesome PUPs and PUMs. The findings were thorough—and enlightening.
“The machines for our troublesome users were in worse shape than we’d thought as far as being infected. One machine, alone, had 1,500 different instances of malware on it. From the initial scan, ThreatDown put all the detections in quarantine, which gave us a view of how much was found,” said Peterson.
With the click of a button, ThreatDown EDR remediated the district’s malware detections, restoring machines to a clean state.
Since deploying ThreatDown more than two years ago, the product has continued to run in a functional set-it-and-forget-it mode.
“I don’t ever have to call ThreatDown support. The product just works,” Peterson said.
As a result of ThreatDown EDR’s protection, detection, and response capabilities, Sunnyside SD’s students and staff are able to access their machines and work throughout the school day without interruption. With malware no longer a persistent issue, IT helpdesk calls have dropped by 40%, freeing the team to focus on higher-value initiatives.
“Anything our IT team can do remotely makes us more efficient. With ThreatDown’s cloud console, we can remotely manage endpoint protection and see the state of all the machines in a single view, whether the user’s machine is on or off campus.”
— David Peterson, IT Coordinator, Sunnyside School District
Key outcomes:
- Partnered with a trusted brand to safeguard district-wide Mac endpoints
- Gained robust Mac security against malware, ransomware, and malicious browser extensions
- Enabled remote visibility and management of student and staff devices on and off campus
- Reduced IT helpdesk calls related to endpoint issues by 40%
- Completed full deployment in less than one week from purchase order
Get started today
Let us take care of your endpoint security. Deploy the solution that delivers superior defense, easiest to use management, and the best value for your security investment.