The school needed a SIEM. It couldn't afford licenses or the staff.
A Montana K12 school needed network visibility without SIEM licensing fees or new analysts. We deployed an open source SIEM its own IT team could run.
A Montana K12 school with an in-house IT team, working within public sector budget limits and responsible for protecting student and staff data.
K12 Education
Security Operations Project, SIEM Deployment, Network Security Audit, Threat Analysis, IT Staff Training
A Montana K12 school needed better visibility into what was happening on its network. The usual answer is a SIEM, a security information and event management system. But traditional SIEM tools come with licensing fees, and someone has to watch them. Hiring internal security analysts or paying for full-time outsourced monitoring didn't fit a public school budget.
The school wanted to protect its infrastructure, safeguard student and staff data, and keep classes running without interruption, all without going over budget.
Before
The Challenge
Traditional SIEM tools carry licensing fees, and they typically need dedicated analysts to be useful. Neither fit the school. Whatever it adopted had to be run by the IT staff it already had.
That set clear requirements. The system needed an interface existing IT staff could manage, clean integration with current systems and infrastructure, regular maintenance and updates to stay secure, and the flexibility to customize without heavy effort.
The school's goals were to improve network visibility and security, protect student and staff data from threats, avoid SIEM licensing fees, and end up with something easy to customize and maintain.
After
The Results
The school now monitors its systems continuously and has better visibility into its network, delivered within public K12 budget limits. Its IT team can address potential threats proactively instead of reacting after the fact.
With no licensing fees and no need for added staff, the school has a sustainable model for long-term network security. The IT team can put its resources where they matter most, and the school can keep its focus on students and its educational mission.
The roadmap we built gives the school a clear path to expand the system. When it's time for the next phase, our Security Operations project support is there to help the IT team take it on.
The Solution
The school engaged us for a Security Operations project. We started by auditing its internal network and servers to understand its monitoring and logging needs, then made recommendations to improve logging and security monitoring, with a focus on better alerting and threat detection tailored to the school. We also ran a threat analysis to identify the attack methods and risks most likely to affect the school's network.
Based on that work, we recommended an open-source SIEM: no licensing fees, easy to customize, and room to grow. We installed it with network sensors between segments to capture traffic, and configured logging and data retention for a set period with precise rules to keep performance up.
We set the system up so the IT team could monitor and respond to suspicious activity efficiently, and delivered tailored training so they could manage it on their own. We connected the team with the SIEM's user community and documentation for troubleshooting and best practices, pointed them to affordable ongoing training, and built a roadmap for expanding the system as the school's needs grow.
The school needed real visibility into its network without paying for SIEM licenses or hiring analysts to watch it.
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