Tuscaloosa County School System: Partners in Cyber Protection
The Tuscaloosa County School System serves over 19,000 students in grades pre-K through 12 in west-central Alabama. The school district’s technology team needs to maintain and protect the IT infrastructure for 35 schools and guard the personal information of students, teachers, and other school employees. With cyber threats only growing, the school district’s Director of Technology set out to find a cybersecurity partner.
The Challenge: Underfunded and Understaffed
Like many school districts around the country, the Tuscaloosa County School System faces a tight budget and struggles to fully fund its technology department. Top IT talent can earn far more in the private sector, making it a constant challenge to fill open positions.
That means school districts like Tuscaloosa need to get creative when it comes to bolstering their cyber threat detection.
Cybercriminals know that K-12 is underfunded and understaffed for the amount of valuable data up for grabs
Brad Jessen, Director of Technology for the Tuscaloosa County School System
The Solution: Partnering with Decept10
Brad Jessen, Director of Technology for the Tuscaloosa County School System, had already been working with Decept10 and was eager to adopt the company’s new SIEM-SOC-XDR solution.
“The solution is more than just a box in our data center,” Jessen explained. “It’s the people who work with us day in and day out. That partnership is what makes the difference with Decept10.”
Key Factors in Choosing Decept10
- Established relationship and trust from previous Decept10 products
- Desire for a true partnership, not just another solution to manage
- Need for a team that would provide comprehensive support
We don’t need another “solution” to manage, but a team that we can count on to support us.
Brad Jessen, Director of Technology for the Tuscaloosa County School System
Ongoing Communication Leads to Greater Peace of Mind
According to Jessen, one of the biggest benefits of working with Decept10 is the communication flow, which lets Jessen know that his network is constantly seen. Recently, a ticket was generated when an account failed to log into the system’s servers. With Decept10’s help, Jessen’s team was able to flag the issue and quickly determine that it came from systems administrators performing unknown work. “Other solutions we’ve had would not have caught this,” Jessen told us.
Benefits of Using Decept10
- Responsive support
- Enhanced security posture
- Proactive issue detection
Jessen and his team trust Decept10 as their cybersecurity partners. “We know that they take our data and systems protection needs as seriously as we do,” he told us.
Not only do we have this incredible partner…but we ourselves become better with each interaction.
Brad Jessen, Director of Technology for the Tuscaloosa County School System
