Case Studies > Top-ranked university uses SIEM tuning and monitoring to help defend against hacking attempts

Top-ranked university uses SIEM tuning and monitoring to help defend against hacking attempts

Company Size

1,000+

Region

America

Country

United States

Product

Binary Defense SOC-as-a-Service
Splunk
Binary Defense Threat Watch

Tech Stack

SIEM
SOC
Threat Intelligence

Implementation Scale

Enterprise-wide Deployment

Impact Metrics

Brand Awareness
Customer Satisfaction
Digital Expertise

Technology Category

Cybersecurity & Privacy - Endpoint Security
Cybersecurity & Privacy - Network Security
Cybersecurity & Privacy - Security Compliance

Applicable Industries

Education

Applicable Functions

Business Operation

Use Cases

Intrusion Detection Systems

Services

Cybersecurity Services
System Integration
Training

About The Customer

Set in the heart of downtown Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Duquesne University has received numerous academic accolades from such entities as U.S. News and World Report, Princeton Review, and Bloomberg Newsweek. With just under 10,000 students at the undergraduate, graduate, doctoral, and online levels, this academic institution is a bustling hub of activity. In addition to the personal and financial information of its students and their parents, universities are ripe with proprietary research data. It’s for this reason that hackers in countries like China have been stepping up their efforts to breach higher education institutions’ cybersecurity measures.

The Challenge

Small security team lacked ability for 24/7 monitoring. The university had invested in a SIEM but needed expert tuning to help cut down on the 'noise' generated by alarms. Information security is of increasing importance at universities, ranking at the top of the list of critical IT issues in the higher education space. A recent survey ranks education at the bottom of the list in terms of industries that are taking proper cybersecurity measures. Thus, universities such as Duquesne are looking for cybersecurity vendor partners that can help keep their information secure.

The Solution

Tom Dugas, the Chief Information Security Officer for Duquesne, partnered with Binary Defense to enhance their cybersecurity measures. Binary Defense provided a Security Operations Center (SOC) to manage and monitor the SIEM 24/7, which was cost-effective compared to building one in-house. The partnership with Binary Defense was beyond a vendor relationship; it was a collaboration that included thoughtful and insightful responses to security incidents. Binary Defense also engaged with Duquesne's IT staff during National Cybersecurity Month to promote cybersecurity activities and share insights on threats.

Operational Impact

The partnership with Binary Defense has kept the university safe and helped the CISO gain regional recognition.
Binary Defense provided dedicated, expert cybersecurity analysis and 24/7 around-the-clock event monitoring.
The real-time analysis of threat behavior fully integrated into Duquesne's incident response process.
Binary Defense went beyond the scope of just being a SIEM or a SOC by promoting cybersecurity activities and sharing threat intelligence.
The blacklist generated by Binary Defense has been very helpful in identifying bad actors and incorporating threat intelligence into the environment.