WithSecure™ Elements Vulnerability Management and WithSecure Business Suite enabled the team to detect new threats and gain full visibility of the security situation across the entire network for the first time.

The need for real visibility of the threat landscape

Digital transformation has been a strong focus for South Staffordshire College over the last 18 months under the direction of Jason Whitaker, Director of IT. Jason and his team of IT personnel have sought to modernize the college’s infrastructure to improve the learning experience for students. Digital transformation work has included a college-wide upgrade from Windows 7 along with numerous background updates and improvements to mobilize the teaching and learning environment.

Cyber security has been the foundation of this modernization campaign. In all, South Staffordshire College must account for the security of 2,740 endpoint devices across five campuses, in addition to the servers and personal devices of staff and students.

The college has responsibility for holding the personal details of thousands of students, including personal and financial data related to funding. This data falls under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and is a popular target for cyber criminals. Ensuring that it is secure is a priority for the college. 

"We needed a full and comprehensive view of what was on the network and a way of moving away from firefighting individual threats as they were found. ”

Jason Whitaker, Director of IT

Visibility was an issue when I came to our audit committees. To meet their requirements, we needed a full and comprehensive view of what was on the network and a way of moving away from firefighting individual threats as they were found.

“There were plenty of scanning options available to use, but none of them told us where we should be focusing our efforts – most offered far too much detail and red threat warnings. With an estate of more than 2,000 endpoint devices across five campuses, as well as a constant influx of visiting personal devices, this was a huge concern. With our previous tools it would have felt like death by a thousand cuts as we would have been busy fighting fires and had no time for strategic planning to move the college forward.”

Choosing WithSecure™ as a strategic security vendor

Jason commented: “As we continued to overhaul our IT infrastructure against our strategic roadmap, it was very important that we chose strategic partners that we could build a genuine relationship with, rather than it simply being a one-off purchase. WithSecure™ fitted the bill perfectly.”

The college had not previously worked with WithSecure, but discussions with the sales team established a strong sense of confidence in the vendor’s focus on strategic relationships. Technical demonstrations also displayed WithSecure™ Elements Vulnerability Management’s capabilities and ease of use.

WithSecure™ Elements Vulnerability Management also stood out from the competition due to its ability to scan thirdparties, enabling the college to check key service providers and identify issues such as missed patches that could later lead to security incidents.

The strong relationship was also a deciding factor in the college later investing in WithSecure™ Business Suite, an advanced endpoint security management package. Jason felt he needed more coverage in this area and was impressed by WithSecure’s commitment to customer service.

Redefining security strategy with WithSecure

South Staffordshire College chose WithSecure™ Elements Vulnerability Management to regain visibility and control of its IT estate. The solution identifies where an organisation’s assets are at risk and the team immediately began discovering vulnerabilities that had gone undetected under the previous security tools. Importantly for Jason and his team, WithSecure™ Elements Vulnerability Management collates the whole gamut of threat intelligence into a single accessible dashboard.

“For a small team like ours, this clarity of information, as well as the time saved was a tangible benefit.”

Jason Whitaker, Director of IT

“The WithSecure™ interface is very clean,” Jason comments. “It allows you to access the information in bite size chunks, with the ability to delve into the details if needed. For a small team like ours, this clarity of information, as well as the time saved, was a tangible benefit.”

WithSecure™ Elements Vulnerability Management’s reporting functions have formed the basis of the college’s security strategy. In addition to dealing with immediate threats as soon as they are identified, the team conducts a regular security meeting to discuss strategic priorities based on the intelligence provided by Vulnerability Management. The clear, concise reports created by the solution have also enabled Jason to provide evidence to the college’s leadership team, which informs decisions made on security priorities. 

Following the success of Vulnerability Management, the college also invested in WithSecure™ Business Suite to further bolster its endpoint management and threat detection capabilities.

“WithSecure has made a huge difference to the team’s efficiency and the overall security of the college. The solutions are a critical part of our five-year strategic security road map as we pursue Cyber Essentials Plus and ISO 27002 compliance.”

Jason Whitaker, Director of IT