Lufkin ISD’s cybersecurity team makes learning in Google Workspace and Microsoft 365 safer and more secure
Background
Lufkin Independent School District is on a mission to “educate and equip all students for success through exceptional learning experiences.” The district is committed to offering a fun, innovative, and high-performing academic program.
Of course, technology plays an important role in doing exactly that.
As a forward-thinking district, Lufkin’s technology department is always looking for ways to keep learning aligned with its increasingly digital environment. But, to do that, they must also account for the many risks that threaten cybersecurity and student safety regularly.
Challenge
“Anytime we deal with a vendor, we go through the same thing. What’s different about ManagedMethods was that they stuck their necks out and went out of their way to ensure we had everything covered. Customer service was the priority rather than the financial side of things.”
— Tyler Butler, Cybersecurity Analyst, Lufkin ISD
Like many school districts, the technology team at Lufkin ISD supports many users, endpoints, hardware and software, and more. Protecting sensitive information is hard enough for any school district with so many moving parts.
As the district’s full-time Cybersecurity Analyst, Butler’s chief responsibility is to protect Lufkin from potential risk factors. Not only does that include cyber attacks, but also anything that could impact student safety — self-harm, violence, bullying, suicide, etc. Luckily, he’s part of a team of about 15 individuals who work together to mitigate these threats.
Rather than just one cloud domain, Lufkin uses both Google Workspace and Microsoft 365. According to Butler, the district’s cloud migration happened long before his tenure, but the original purpose was to give students access to resources outside the network. When the district suffered a ransomware attack in 2021, Butler’s cybersecurity position was created.
“As soon as I started, I began thinking about cloud security,” he explained. “We already addressed some conditional access policies, but we felt like we could’ve used more granularity.”
There was also no solution in place for scanning keywords and uncovering safety signals.
“The problem we were coming across was that counselors weren’t being notified when there was an issue, especially if it was in a Word document, email, or file of some sort,” Butler said. “We never knew what angle we needed to watch, and that was a huge concern.”
Solution
Although Lufkin was already using a native solution, Butler decided to search for another option that would give him that granularity of visibility and control that he needed. Shortly thereafter, he checked his inbox to find a happy surprise. ManagedMethods reached out via email — and, said Butler, “we’re definitely glad that they did.”
“I know that Cloud Monitor has flagged countless events that have prompted our counselors and assistant principals to move as quickly as needed. It’s been amazing that we’ve been able to help those kids. We have had possible self-harm incidents that we were able to address within the hour. The respective counselors and assistant principals were notified at each individual campus.”
— Tyler Butler, Cybersecurity Analyst, Lufkin ISD
Not even a week after discovering ManagedMethods, someone from Lufkin’s District Education Center asked Butler whether or not they had a solution for detecting safety signals.
“I was like, ‘Man, have I got good news for you!’” he replied. “It was perfect timing.”
Lufkin’s technology department soon implemented Cloud Monitor, ManagedMethods’ cloud-based security platform that makes security and safety monitoring a fast and simple process. Rather than complicated proxies, it uses application programming interfaces (APIs) to integrate with Google Workspace and Microsoft 365 and provide continuous visibility over these domains.
“Anytime we deal with a vendor, we go through the same thing,” Butler said. “What’s different about ManagedMethods was that they stuck their necks out and went out of their way to ensure we had everything covered. Customer service was the priority rather than the financial side of things.”
Results
“Outside of having so much more insight we didn’t have before, I like the way the console is put together compared to my previous console. Investigating incidents that used to take 30 minutes or more can now be done in minutes. Cloud Monitor is straight to the point and provides a lot more data than I thought we’d get originally, and is much easier to work with, which was a big plus.”
— Tyler Butler, Cybersecurity Analyst, Lufkin ISD
Since the implementation, Lufkin’s IT department has made Cloud Monitor a staple part of their cybersecurity process.
“Cloud Monitor is helping us identify where risks are happening, who’s sending the data out, and how we can go about making a policy everyone can abide by,” Butler explained. “It’s opening our eyes to the avenues we need to look at before we start having Cloud Monitor do a lot of the work.”
For example, they’re using the platform to analyze logins from outside the U.S. This additional visibility provides a good overview of their domain, allowing them to investigate as needed.
“Outside of having so much more insight we didn’t have before, I like the way the console is put together compared to my previous console,” Butler added. “Cloud Monitor is straight to the point and provides a lot more data than I thought we’d get originally — which was a big plus.”
Also, he said he’s been able to save loads of time investigating incidents. Whereas he used to spend 30 minutes or more analyzing what little data he could, Cloud Monitor makes this process much easier. Best of all, it’s helped him and his team uncover student safety issues.
“I know that Cloud Monitor has flagged countless events that have prompted our counselors and assistant principals to move as quickly as needed. It’s been amazing that we’ve been able to help those kids. We have had possible self-harm incidents that we were able to address within the hour. The respective counselors and assistant principals were notified at each individual campus.”
Butler and his team are leveraging Cloud Monitor to their advantage. And the best part? They’re making a real difference at the same time.
Schedule a free 30-day audit today to learn more about how Cloud Monitor can help you protect your school district.
