University of Wollongong scores high marks for endpoint security with Sekuro and CrowdStrike
HIGHLIGHTS
Challenge
- With an increasing number of attacks in the education sector, there was a need for the University of Wollongong (UOW) to improve its end-point security.
- Its existing end-point solution needed to grow in sophistication.
- UOW’s small security team was being stretched too thinly to effectively respond to threats in real-time.
Solutions
- With the help of Sekuro, UOW rolled out CrowdStrike Falcon® Complete across almost 6,000 endpoints in just one month, followed by its servers and international campuses.
Outcomes
- The CrowdStrike Falcon® Complete solution has already detected and thwarted malicious incidents within seconds, protecting the university from significant damage.
- UOW’s security team can now focus on high-level activities to support the institution’s growth and ability to innovate.
“Strong end-point security has become an expectation for universities, not an option. Working with CrowdStrike and Sekuro has enabled us to better protect our students, faculty, and staff and provides a competitive advantage.” said Ray Coury, Chief Information Digital Officer at UOW.
The Story of University of Wollongong (UOW)
UOW has a large, geographically dispersed environment with approximately 26,000 domestic students enrolled, over 7,000 enrolled internationally and almost 2,500 faculty and staff members.
UOW was well aware that universities, particularly research institutions, have become prime targets for cybercriminals due to the sensitive nature and large amounts of data they hold. The Office of the Australian Information Commissioner’s Notifiable Data Breaches Report noted 11% of the 396 reported incidents between January and June 2022 affected the education sector.
Ray Coury, Chief Information Digital Officer at UOW, described a university environment as a challenging environment from a security perspective, in that it can’t be completely locked down like other infrastructures due to the open nature of its operating model. This increases the risk profile and requires more vigilance. Working with a lean security team, Coury knew UOW needed strong, state-of-the-art end-point protection that could scale to operate internationally.
As UOW’s previous end-point solution was coming to the end of its lifespan, the team had already identified the need to switch providers as the product development and support for its existing end-point solution had declined.
The University of Wollongong (UOW) is an Australian public research university located in Wollongong on the east coast of NSW. It’s ranked number 162 in the QS World University Rankings and has a strong international focus and reputation, including campuses in the United Arab Emirates, Hong Kong and Malaysia, and teaching locations in China and Singapore.
Wanting to improve its existing endpoint solution to mitigate risks of increased attacks against universities, UOW switched to CrowdStrike’s Falcon® Complete for its end-point protection, choosing Sekuro as its consulting and implementation partner.
Our Solution for University of Wollongong
The University chose CrowdStrike Falcon® Prevent, which Sekuro helped deploy in January 2022, implementing the solution across approximately 7,000 endpoints in one to two days. Despite then having plans to roll out a SOC monitoring service, UOW investigations led them to the decision that the University would require a greater level of protection that would include effective remediation, which subsequently led them to upgrade to CrowdStrike Falcon® Complete in June 2022.
UOW again brought on Sekuro as its consulting and implementation partner with an aggressive target to get the Falcon Complete solution up and running across almost 6,000 endpoints in one month. UOW was aware it needed to manage risk as the longer it didn’t have a solution in place, the longer it was exposed to attacks.
“We didn’t want to pay licensing fees for a service that wasn’t in use or leave ourselves exposed for an extended period of time. That’s why we wanted to get it up and running and realise the benefits as quickly as possible to gain value and minimise risk.
“My team was initially apprehensive about the timeline, but with Sekuro’s support and expertise, the roll-out went very smoothly and was delivered on schedule,” said Steve Cliffe, Cyber Security Manager at UOW.
Falcon Complete was then successfully rolled out to its servers (Windows & Linux), which had never run EDR previously.
The University has begun gradually rolling out CrowdStrike to its overseas campuses including Dubai, Malaysia and Hong Kong. Sekuro has assisted with the implementation of a Multi-Tenancy CrowdStrike platform, which aside from protecting the businesses globally, also gives them a single pane of glass across the campuses and better control over its policies.
“Even though we felt comfortable using CrowdStrike after migrating our Australian campuses, we engaged Sekuro to assist with onboarding our overseas campuses. It was beneficial to have the support of the same engineer across both phases of the rollout,” Cliffe added.
Sekuro continues to assist UOW in reviewing and implementing further CrowdStrike modules to assist with potential cyber security threats, such as its ‘Falcon Surface‘ module.
Outcomes for the University of Wollongong (UOW)
The UOW team has been impressed with the superiority of CrowdStrike’s offering, particularly Falcon Complete, over its incumbent solution. UOW experienced two incidents where threat actors used compromised accounts to access its virtual desktop infrastructure (now behind its VPN) and started performing serious malicious activity but were thwarted by Falcon and the Complete team.
“Having a professional resource that monitors and responds 24×7 is not just a nice to have – it’s a requirement these days. The bad guys don’t sleep,” said Cliffe.
Coury feels the biggest benefit of working with CrowdStrike and Sekuro is the peace of mind it brings to the team. The automated 24/7 support means the team isn’t bogged down with tedious tasks and can focus on high-level activity, knowing its environment is protected.
“We have a lean security team, so having an extra tool in our arsenal that does not impact performance – 99 out of 100 people don’t even know it’s there – has made a significant impact.
“Sekuro had good knowledge of the product, and was professional and easy to work with,” Cliffe concludes.
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Cyber security is the foundation of a resilient business ecosystem. Sekuro helps you take advantage of cutting-edge technology while protecting your assets with a modern strategic approach.
Sekuro offers a curated set of cyber security tools; but what sets us apart from other service providers is our approach to implementing these tools. The expert implementation of cyber security tools within a broader cyber and risk strategy are at the heart of our work. We’ll not only provide you with best-in-class security tools but also create a comprehensive security strategy ensuring that all users and devices are operating within a secure and resilient environment.
Clients will benefit from our long-standing partnership with CrowdStrike. As an Elite Partner for CrowdStrike, Sekuro has secured more organisations in Australia than all the others combined.
