The ABC’s of Cybersecurity: Cost-Conscious Edition
How a K-12 School District Secured Their Data, Saved Money and Improved Compliance
Austin Independent School District (ISD) educates 72,830 students at 116 diverse school locations in one of the fastest growing metroplexes in the country. The district consists of elementary, middle, high, early college, academy, magnet, alternative and community schools serving a diverse student population. By their own account, graduation rates and composite SAT/ACT scores exceed Texas state averages and reflect the commitment the district has to its students.
The Austin ISD Technology Department’s mission reflects their service to the district through innovation and operational excellence and supports the District’s vision to prepare every student with the knowledge and skills to thrive in college, career and life. Cybersecurity is a crucial responsibility made more complex by the central hub layout serving all 116 locations. With external pressures causing staff retention issues and evidence of vulnerabilities in their existing security services surfacing, they chose TekStream and Splunk to provide a more comprehensive cyber program.
Technology Used
Splunk Cloud
Splunk Enterprise Security
Splunk SOAR
Ingest Processor
Edge Processor
Project Pain Points
Attack volume is increasing in this sector due to the value hackers place on education databases.
Legacy security system focused primarily on firewall detection, leaving gaps in coverage.
Multi-cloud infrastructure workloads created labyrinth of endpoints and data sources.
Ingest volumes were causing pricing pressure.
Solution Objectives
Secure the district, save money, remain compliant. And be quick about it! A three-pronged approach to success at Austin Independent School District (ISD) included Splunk Enterprise Security, a single environment on AWS Cloud, and TekStream advanced services implementation.
TekStream started with a Splunk Cloud for Syslog ingestion protocol, bringing infrastructure workloads from Google Cloud, Rapid Identity (student laptop authenticator), Barracuda and data from many other applications. With an eye to NIST (800-153), HIPAA and FERPA compliance requirements, ingest processors and other Splunk tools were used to compress and ingest data. This allowed Austin ISD to save money while gaining best-in-class security. It all sits on one AWS Cloud instance now and makes the district eligible for ongoing incentive programs.
It is time to address the elephant in the room: Splunk Enterprise Security has a reputation for high prices. Most products of this caliber have a similar reputation. Austin Independent School District (ISD) is one of many projects that put that talk to rest by demonstrating that the combination of Splunk, a best-in-class cybersecurity platform, and TekStream, an expert managed services partner, are both affordable and effective. Poor implementation of the best product does not equal effective cybersecurity. Neither does expert implementation of a sub-par product. TekStream and Splunk are better together.
GDI (Get Data In) is a core competency the TekStream team employs. Reducing the time it takes to ingest, implement and secure data for our clients is the mantra behind every decision and every efficiency sought. Simplifying our approach, streamlining operations and analyzing results in real time directly contributes to the successful implementation of Splunk security.
Full implementation at Austin Independent School District (ISD) included standing up the SIEM, onboarding data sources, creating use cases, correlation searches, detections and SOAR playbooks, and the launch of managed security operations. TekStream Managed Detection and Response keeps the School District secure and sets the stage for ongoing enhancement work.
Key Successes
- Expert use of new Ingest Processor and Edge Processor compressed data to affordable volumes without sacrificing coverage.
- Custom integrations for identity management.
- Compliance efficiencies (NIST, HIPPA, FERPA and more) allow staff to focus on cybersecurity detection, remediation and program enhancements.
- System enhancements run collinear with operational work, ensuring continuous improvement and support for the security system.
- Parallel AWS Cloud migration motion decreased project timeframe.
About The Company
Austin Independent School District (ISD) educates 72,830 students at 116 diverse school locations in one of the fastest growing metroplexes in the country. The district consists of elementary, middle, high, early college, academy, magnet, alternative and community schools serving a diverse student population.
Company: Austin Independent School District (ISD), Austin TX
Industry: K-12 School District
Size:
- 116 Schools
- 72,830 Students
- 5,093 Teachers
- 5,373 Support Staff
Read more about TekStream Security Services.