University asks BitLyft to Take Over Cybersecurity

Organization: Private university in Mississippi

Total student enrollment 5,000+

Programs and certificates 130+

Log Sources: 218 total sources from HP, Linux, GSuite, Palo Alto, CrowdStrike, IIS Web Server, Manage Engine, ProCurve Switch, Zeek Network Monitor, Qualys Vulnerability Scanner, Apache Web Server, Windows Servers

“We know that we can count on the BitLyft team to stick with us until any concerns on our side are taken care of.” Network and Security Manager

The Challenge:

As cybersecurity concerns grow and regulations expand, many organizations find themselves in search of information. This was true for the IT staff of a private university in Mississippi. After attending a couple of cybersecurity conferences and reading more about the topic, the university determined it needed a strategy. With some knowledge in hand, the institution signed a contract with a consultant from one of the conferences. The contract included an annual risk assessment and advisory services.

During their first year of partnership, the consultant covered network monitoring. The university gained a lot of insight about the topic but realized it was not adequately prepared to handle the workload on its own. Not only did the institution lack staff, but they didn’t have the right certifications or subject matter experts. In addition, the team didn’t have the time to only work on this one aspect of their business. According to the audit, the university needed to hire a Chief Security Information Officer (CISO) or Chief Security Officer (CSO), but it lacked the budget to cover a salary range this substantial.

Further contributing to the IT staff’s challenges was the plethora of alerts coming in from their Security Incident and Event Management (SIEM) system. “We were trying to process all of the traffic the university has to process and we could not keep up with the raw data or the number of alerts coming out of the system,” said the university’s Network and Security Manager.

With this knowledge in place, the university began to look for a third-party to monitor their systems.

Download the PDF below to see how partnering with BitLyft helped secure this private university: