Memphis Business Academy (MBA) is a K-12 college preparatory school. The school opened in 2005, offering a combination of academic excellence with a focus on business education MBA’s elementary school has a growing student body of +300 students, and the high school has a student body of +500 students in grades 9-12. The school’s IT department is a team of 6. This includes part-time workers and interns, headed by IT director, Jerry Wilson.
The Challenge
Wilson faced a particular set of challenges when it came to the school’s email security. He needed a vendor that would do more than just offer a service, he needed a company that would be tailored to his challenges, be accommodating and flexible, and be truly invested in helping him meet his cybersecurity goals.
Human Error
Wilson was dealing with staff and students that were regularly putting security at risk with little understanding of the potential impact. Wilson was worried that incoming emails from suspicious and unauthorized overseas addresses could be phishing attempts. While he was always educating the school community on security, he felt adopting a technology that would stay one step ahead of these human errors would be far more effective and efficient.
“I know that people in the school network are exposed to potentially unsafe content. Now, I see Coro catches things I would not have thought it could catch. So I let Coro deal with it and that takes care of my concerns.”
Security Issues on Multiple Fronts
Wilson first became interested in Coro for its email security capabilities. Seeing what Coro was able to catch and witnessing the automatic resolution of the majority of issues, quickly turned his attention to how else Coro’s products could help him tackle other security concerns such as endpoint security.
“I started off using Coro’s email security solution and that was really easy. I didn’t have to read any instructions. It was intuitive. That made me want to look into Coro’s other solutions, like for endpoint security, which is becoming an issue for us.”
“Ease of use is a big deal for me, and I wanted the other solutions to be as easy as Coro made email security for me.”
“We had needs that outstripped our resources. It comes down to resources and time, and the ability to do security on a large scale, I could maybe afford a contractor to do security for me, but Coro gives me more value than that.”
The Solution
In Coro, Wilson found a security provider that values partnership. A tool that made cybersecurity easy. A solution that built on cutting-edge technology, automation, and saves resources.
Resource Saving
MBA found Coro’s email security tool was able to handle all of the issues from unauthorized access and detected phishing to spoofing attempts. Wilson saved time and reduced his workload. He no longer needed to worry about people in the school network sharing private information or not being aware of all security protocols.
“Can I get a level of security that makes me feel comfortable enough that I’m doing my job well, taking care of my coworkers, taking care of our students? With Coro, the answer to that is ‘yes’.”
Powerful Automation
Once Wilson saw the immediate effects of Coro, it became clear that the advanced AI detection and automatic ticket resolution were an unbeatable advantage.
“Prior to partnering with Coro, MBA did not have a dedicated security solution. When I first started using Coro it was clear to me that the reason we hadn’t been hit yet is just because we managed to go unnoticed. But it was a matter of time, we couldn’t continue to run that risk and not have anything set up as far as email security.”
Trusted Partnership
Coro’s ability to flag suspicious behaviour, catch a variety of security threats ranging in severity and immediacy, and resolve them without the IT team’s intervention was what inspired Wilson’s trust in the tool.
“Coro is trusted. I can trust it because I see what it catches. Rarely a day goes by that Coro doesn’t catch things and automatically remediate them.”
“It’s the partnership and the relationship that Coro offers, combined with the ease of use and affordability, plus the automatic resolutions that make my life so much easier. Those are the things that make Coro work for me. And also, it’s trusted. I can trust it, I know it’s catching things.”
The Value
Coro’s platform automatically detects and remediates the many security threats that MBA faces, without IT teams having to worry, investigate, or fix issues themselves. Since switching, Wilson has kept MBA safer and even saved time.
For MBA’s IT Director, it was a combination of Coro’s modular security solution and their commitment to being more than just another vendor, that made the difference between no security and a strong, durable, security posture. Features like automatic resolution of 95% of security alerts, alongside the tool’s ease-of-use made a dramatic difference in Wilson’s ability to do his job. Flexibility, an accommodating spirit, and a shared goal have made a big difference to Wilson’s sense of trust in Coro.
Partnership
“Coro showed that they really care. That sort of thing creates a relationship and a loyalty that is beyond a customer-vendor relationship.”
Ease Of Use
“It was exactly the sort of thing I was looking for. I didn’t have to read any instructions. The email security module was intuitive. That made me want to look into Coro’s other solutions, like endpoint security.”
An Answer to Human Error
“People on my network do all sorts of things that are bad for security, like sending private information over email. I’ve given up trying to get them to stop because I see Coro catches things I would not have thought it could catch.”
Resource Management
“It comes down to resources and time, and the ability to do security on a large scale. I could maybe afford a contractor to do security, but Coro gives me much more value.”
“I didn’t want a vendor, I needed a partner because my time is limited and my resources are limited. Coro is just that, it’s not just a service I’m buying, it’s a true partner that helps me achieve my goals.”
Taos Academy (TA) is a state-funded charter school, serving grades 5-12. The school opened in 2009, offering a hybrid learning model that combines direct and digital instruction. TA has a growing student body of several hundred students and over 50 faculty members. The school’s cybersecurity is managed by a single IT director, Kenny Shannon, who has a broad range of other responsibilities.
The Challenge
Achieving optimal email security without increasing workload.
TA faced a particular set of challenges when it came to the school’s email security and its vulnerability to phishing and spoofing attacks.
Email Overload
School administrators and staff are inundated with many emails daily. This volume of emails, combined with a lack of experience in identifying suspicious emails, makes it challenging for administrators to identify phishing and spoofing attempts. Security training for faculty and staff can be a good second line of defense, but it is not enough to defend against more sophisticated phishing tactics. Staff might overlook security protocols and are prone to human error, even with regular security training.
Overly Complex Tools
TA’s security stack consisted of multiple tools that required complex configurations and ongoing upkeep. A lack of IT resources meant that Shannon needed a simpler and more self-sufficient tool when it came to adding an email security solution to his stack. He needed a tool that would handle critical security incidents without adding to the workload.
Insufficient Existing Email Security Solution
TA was using Google Workspace, which offers basic email protection. However, this platform does not stop more sophisticated phishing attacks, rendering it an insufficient solution for TA’s data protection needs. Shannon needed a solution that would support Google Workspace and add an extra layer of security to their email system.
Delayed Response Time
Email security alerts, such as for domain blocking, often require immediate action to keep cyberthreats at bay. TA’s one-man IT team wasn’t always able to address email security fast enough.
Limited IT Resources
With only one IT person responsible for all cybersecurity needs alongside a range of other IT tasks, Shannon was stretched thin. The heavy burden made it difficult to address security needs as promptly and thoroughly as he wanted to.
“My goal was to streamline and make things more efficient for everyone’s workload, including my own.”
The Solution
An automated security tool that resolves email security threats while reducing IT workload. Taos Academy found Coro’s email security tool a time saving and workload reducing solution, that effectively safeguards against phishing and spoofing.
Resource Saving
Coro proved to be an ideal solution because it acts as a first line of defense, identifying suspicious emails early and blocking harmful ones before they make their way into the organization. On the side of educating email users, Coro offers the ability to send educational materials through the console. By using Coro, Shannon was able to protect his staff without adding to his own workload.
“My goal was to streamline and make things more efficient for everyone’s workload, including my own.”
Powerful Automation
Shannon chose Coro for its automation capabilities, which caught things he had missed.
“I wanted something that would be more comprehensive, more active, and participatory, especially when it came to the school administrators and office staff, because they are dealing with dozens and dozens of emails every single day. We felt Coro’s effect immediately, it completely altered workloads for all staff.”
Trusted Partnership
Taos Academy was impressed with Coro’s continued evolution.
“The experience over the past year has been that the product keeps evolving. There were new features added over time. Coro is an intuitive product to begin with. I don’t have to read forums and look through manuals as much to operate it. Which, unfortunately, is a common thing when adopting new products. The improvements that are constantly being made make a significant change to functionality. I don’t have to click around too much to figure out how to do what I want to do.”
“Thanks to Coro’s behavioural analysis, which molds and adjusts the tool over time, accuracy grew and security precision continued to evolve over time. This gave me peace of mind that our staff will be protected, without adding to our workload.”
The Value
Coro’s platform automatically detects and remediates the many security threats that TA faces, without IT teams having to worry, investigate, or fix issues themselves. Since switching, Shannon has kept TA safer and even saved time.
For TA’s IT Director, Coro offered better automation capabilities, which caught things he had missed. He wanted something that would be more comprehensive, more active, and participatory. Especially when it came to the school administrators and office staff, because they are dealing with dozens and dozens of emails every single day.
Partnership
“Coro showed that they really care. That sort of thing creates a relationship and a loyalty that is beyond a customer-vendor relationship.”
Ease Of Use
“Coro ticked all the boxes straight away. When I saw it in action, I thought, this is exactly what I’m looking for.”
An Answer to Human Error
“I jump around between a lot of tasks, and because security is not my only responsibility, it could be a while before I see alerts. If they are urgent and need immediate resolution, I need Coro. This lag time is critical for a security event to happen.”
Resource Management
“The amount of time I spend on security issues has been cut down from two hours a day to 10 minutes.”
“The best thing Coro has given me is taking away the heavy lifting. It is a combination of time saved, a cost-effective approach, and the peace of mind that email security is covered.”
Educational institutions can be a prime target for cybercriminals for a number of reasons. Lean IT teams with limited resources are responsible for managing a large network of students, faculty, and school communities, while overseeing dated infrastructures poorly equipped to deal with the requirements of the digital age. Schools also collect, store and must protect a wealth of valuable data including personal records and financial documents. Jointly these circumstances create the perfect storm for attackers to strike.
Faced with such challenges, it is clear why education was listed as one of the six worst-performing cybersecurity sectors of 2022. This is in large part due to the volume of users logged into systems equipped with inadequate security protocols.
In 2023, nearly half (42%) of students and faculty reported circumventing security protocols regularly, with as many as 30% opening phishing emails more than once. In fact, 96% of IT admins report they don’t believe their schools are adequately secured, and 71% say the size of their IT teams relative to the security needs of the school render them underprepared, and unable to deal with security and regulatory needs.
Memphis Business Academy (MBA) is one of Coro’s education customers. The academy serves a student body of 1,700, with 170 faculty members, and only one IT professional managing the school’s security. Coro’s seamless reduction of IT workload has lead to exponential improvement to the school’s security posture.
Similarly, Taos Academy, a 5th-12th grade charter school in New Mexico with a student body of approximately 170 and 13 faculty members is managed by a single IT director responsible for all security and compliance requirements. This school was able to fortify security and set a growing standard for security and compliance as it scales.
Recent interviews with school IT admins found:
- 82% believed threats from admin interfaces were weakening their security posture
- 73% believed that sluggish response times had dire effects on their security
- 81% believed insufficient network segregation and lack of siloed workspaces was affecting the school’s overall security
- 68% believed mismanaged authorization and authentication processes were weakening security
Crowdstrike 2024 Global Threat report, among other surveys
How Coro Helps Cybersecurity in Schools
Coro was founded in 2015 as a cloud security solution. Since introducing the current Coro platform in 2021, Coro has seen 300% year-over-year growth. Much of that growth is attributed to our trusted clients in the education sector, both private and public schools from k-12s through colleges, universities, and trade schools. The expansive cybersecurity coverage that Coro provides, alongside its ease of use and budget-conscious pricing, makes us an ideal solution for education.
Coro provides end-to-end security coverage that includes:
Critical Protection
Securing your data by identifying and blocking unauthorized access and flagging suspicious activity.
Regulatory Compliance
Assisting with safeguarding personal information, ensuring data privacy, limiting access to sensitive data.
Monitoring & Prioritization
Monitoring your cloud environments, endpoint devices, as well as user activity, remediating automatically, and prioritizing flagged vulnerabilities.
One Interface, One Endpoint Agent
Answering all your security needs in one dashboard, one database, and one endpoint agent.
Automated Security
Automatically resolving 95% of security alerts, and helping you resolve the 5% remaining tickets requiring manual resolution.
Expertise & Support
Supporting clients through the experts at our 24/7 Security Operations Center (SOC).
A Four-Pillared Solution for Optimal Security and Compliance
Educational institutions must navigate a complex landscape of compliance requirements that protect student and faculties’ education records, personal data, and financial records. These regulations can be specific to education institutions, such as PPRA, or more generally applicable to schools, for example COPPA.
Coro helps our customers manage their data privacy policies based on predefined data types. By defining who in the organization is authorized to access sensitive information, organizations can reduce the risk of non-compliance. Coro provides a suite of tools and capabilities. It is a vital part of a school’s overall data compliance effort.
Monitoring & Mitigation of Security Threats
Offering the full range of security solutions schools need makes Coro the ultimate answer to small IT teams. Coro offers ease of use alongside reliability, dramatically reducing the risk of misconfigurations, alert fatigue, IT admin burnout, and threats gone unnoticed.
Budget Consciousness
Coro’s modular approach was designed to fit the needs and budgets of lean IT teams. Our solution allows users to add or remove modules based on changing needs and budgets. Combined with automation capabilities that resolve 95% of security alerts without the need for IT intervention, Coro dramatically reduces workloads and the need for IT professionals.
Peace of Mind
Combining all security needs in one platform offers the triple benefit of preventing misconfigurations, reducing blind spots associated with juggling multiple vendors, and providing an integrated experience for security and compliance needs. Coro’s ability to provide an end-to-end security solution, equipped with add-on services by in-house SOC specialists where needed, amounts to much more than a security solution – it equals improved confidence.
Who We Are
Coro is a market leader in the modular security space, providing enterprise-grade cybersecurity to distributed businesses with lean IT teams. Relying on advanced AI capabilities, the Coro platform automatically detects, analyzes, and remediates security threats faced by today’s businesses, significantly reducing the security burdens placed on IT teams.
The company has been named a leader in G2-Grid for EDR/MDR, received Triple A grading (AAA) from the testing institute SE LABS, and won awards for best performer by customer reviews. Coro is based in Chicago with offices in New York City, London, Israel, and caters to over 5,000 customers globally.
