One of 50 public Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) colleges in South Africa chose Zecurion to protect its sensitive data from insider threats. According to “Occupational Fraud 2022: A Report to the Nations” median loss per insider threat case in educational industry reaches USD 56,000. With thousands of students, alumni, administrative employees, and others involved, operating without a comprehensive solution is a risk a reputable organization is not ready to take.

Highlights

• The College provides specialists in sectors of iron and steel manufacturing, mining (mainly coal), textile and clothing production, cement chemical manufacturing, tire production, engineering and primary agriculture.
• There are 7 Campuses, spread over a wide geographical area, offering diverse range of nationally recognized vocational and occupational programs.

Challenge

“Times, when educational organizations kept all essential data only on paper in guarded archives, are long gone. Today colleges and universities are actively exchanging knowledge and skills to enhance and optimize teaching and learning opportunities. To protect data, it’s crucial to have a comprehensive insider threat protection software in place”, — says Alexey Raevsky, CEO, Zecurion.

Digital transformation requires more people-centric attention, as perimeters of where sensitive data exist, are blurry. The College was looking for a solution, able to provide audit of data inventory, bring transparency to the ways data is stored, accessed and moved. The software as well had to help with incident response and be able to protect data.

• Espionage. Educational organizations develop technologies, that are highly targeted by cybercriminals. It takes one financially-motivated employee to harm organization’s scientific work and reputation.
• Internal fraud. Administrative officials might accept bribes from students to change grades, sell college diplomas and records to non-students. Sometimes these criminal schemes involve groups of connected officials, and thus work unnoticed year by year. 
• Data loss prevention. Educational industry collects and archives impressive amount of data: from student personal records to research results. As an archive grows it gets harder to comply with privacy regulations and data security standards.

Solution

The College has deployed Zecurion Next Generation DLP 12 to eliminate insider threats. 

UBA ensures behavior monitoring and risk assessment of employees to detect deviations before they become a problem. Device control guarantees granular approach to limit access and protect data without hindering legitimate use. Data Classification by Zecurion Discovery keeps information in order and helps to organize inventory. Traffic Control minimizes the risk of sensitive data loss.

Results

Zecurion not only provided instrument for regulations compliance and internal threat prevention, but also offered a powerful forensic investigation tool. To manage deviations or incidents, the Security Officer can easily open according tabs regarding high-risk employees or employees under supervision. The Dashboard provides all crucial details on organization’s incidents and behavior in one place. User incident profile allows to see all events associated with an employee (violations, communications, data used). The connections diagram highlights suspicious communication and contacts between employees. Received data provide proper factual support for any further investigation.