BeyondTrust > Case Studies > Technical College Reduces Malware and Extends Lifetime of PCs with PowerBroker

Technical College Reduces Malware and Extends Lifetime of PCs with PowerBroker

Company Size

1,000+

Region

America

Country

United States

Product

PowerBroker for Windows

Tech Stack

Microsoft SharePoint

Implementation Scale

Enterprise-wide Deployment

Impact Metrics

Digital Expertise
Productivity Improvements

Technology Category

Cybersecurity & Privacy - Endpoint Security

Applicable Industries

Education

Use Cases

Cybersecurity

Services

System Integration
Training

About The Customer

The customer is a regional technical college in the United States, serving nearly 12,000 students in person and online. The college has a significant number of PCs that are used by students, faculty, and staff. The college's IT department, led by the Director of IT Services, is responsible for managing these PCs, ensuring their performance, and protecting them from malware and other security threats. The college's IT department also provides support to users, including software installation services. However, the department was facing challenges in managing the PCs due to unauthorized software installations and the increasing demand on the network.

The Challenge

The technical college was experiencing increased demand on their network and seeing the opportunity for malware infiltration growing. Over the past several years, the Director of IT Services had been cleaning up the technical college’s PC environment: first locking down PCs in the labs, and then removing elevated privileges for faculty and staff. By allowing only the fewest or least rights actually needed by faculty and staff, the Director of IT Services hoped to prevent the installation and spread of malware. The Director also hoped that reining in unauthorized software installs would result in fewer resource-hogging components on college PCs. With less extraneous software, the PCs could provide acceptable performance for a longer period of time, therefore allowing the college to maximize the useful life of its PCs. Simply eliminating admin rights, however, would mean that any software install would require an IT Help Desk staff person to gain access to the PC and perform the installation. Deploying IT staff around the campuses for each install would introduce a frustrating delay for faculty and staff. And, the time involved simply to coordinate these sessions would continue to increase as the number of college-maintained PCs was also expanding.

The Solution

The college decided to implement PowerBroker for Windows, a solution from BeyondTrust, to address their challenges. PowerBroker for Windows allows the college to control user privileges and prevent unauthorized software installations. The solution also enables users to install pre-approved software themselves, reducing the workload on the IT Help Desk. The college tested another solution before deciding on PowerBroker for Windows, but found that the latter was more suitable for their environment. BeyondTrust also provided support and training to the college during the trial and implementation of the solution, and even trained a new employee. The college now uses Microsoft SharePoint to allow staff and faculty members to download and install pre-approved software themselves.

Operational Impact

The college's IT department has been able to reduce the number of malware issues, improving the performance of the PCs and extending their useful life.
The solution has also reduced the workload on the IT Help Desk, as users can now install pre-approved software themselves.
The college has been able to maintain control over software installations, ensuring that only legitimate software is installed on the PCs.