CUSTOMER CASE STUDY BLOXHAM SCHOOL

Sophos MDR ‘a lightat the end of thetunnel’ for Bloxham
School in Oxfordshire
Bloxham School is an independent day and boarding school,
based in the large village of Bloxham in Oxfordshire, and is part of
the Woodard Schools group. The school has a main site, with twoboarding houses based in other locations within the village. The pupilbase of around 650 children, between the ages of 11 and 18, attend
the school either as day students or boarding. There are around 300
staff, which includes teachers, administration and support staff.

CUSTOMER-AT-A-GLANCE
Bloxham School
Industry
Education
Number of Users
Circa 1,000 endpoints

Sophos Service
Managed Services - Sophos Managed
Detection and Response (MDR)
Sophos Customer
Since 2018

CUSTOMER CASE STUDY BLOXHAM SCHOOL“With the rising threat of cyberattacks on educational establishments, myteam was stressed with the worry that the worst might happen. We’reaccountable for ensuring students, data, and staff are protected, so weneeded to find a solution to respond to any threat or attack, but within thebudgetary constraints acceptable to the school’s Leadership team.”
Dave Quinney, Director of IT, Bloxham School

Oxfordshire-based independent Bloxham School
has been a Sophos customer since 2018. Awareof an increase in malware and cyberattacks on
educational institutions, Bloxham School sought
to bolster its cybersecurity and threat protection,and turned to the Sophos Managed Detection andResponse (MDR) team for help.

Business challenges
Bloxham School already had Microsoft 365
A5 endpoint protection in place to protects its
students, staff and 1,000 endpoints. Yet, withthe rise in cyberattacks and ransomware threats,
including the risk of internal hacking in the school
network, the IT team wanted to strengthen its
cybersecurity to cover the school 24 hours a day,seven days a week.
Bloxham School has around 650 students and 300
staff, and every student and teacher is provided
with a laptop. In addition, for sixth form students,
the school runs a ‘bring your own device’ scheme
to help prepare students for university. The schoolaccommodates both day students and boarders, soa significant number of students require access tothe network outside of school hours. The threat ofan attack from a hacker within the school network
was also a real possibility.

In 2023, the school’s Director of IT, Dave Quinney,acknowledged that his team did not have thecapacity and expertise to monitor and protect theschool’s IT infrastructure 24/7/365, or respondin the event of a malware or ransomware attack.
With the IT team concerned about the vulnerability
the school faced, Dave sought to find a solution tostrengthen the team’s ability to respond to cyberthreats. Having concluded that doing this in-house
would be unaffordable and unfeasible, he began toexplore other options.
The school considered four cybersecurity providers.
In most cases, the quotes were well beyond theschool’s budget, or the solutions offered wereincompatible with those the school was alreadyunder contract for. Sophos, however, came throughwith a solution that ticked all the right boxes.

CUSTOMER CASE STUDY BLOXHAM SCHOOL“Sophos MDR was the ‘light at the end of the tunnel’
for us. We knew we couldn’t deliver the protection
and response we needed in-house, and the otherproviders submitted offers we simply couldn’t afford.
Sophos MDR offered us the perfect solution to stickwith the solutions we’d already paid for, whilst giving
us that extra layer of protection and support.”
Dave Quinney, Director of IT, Bloxham School

The Technical Solution
Bloxham School implemented Sophos Managed
Detection and Response (MDR). It provides theschool with round-the-clock threat detection andresponse from Sophos’ team of experts, while
enabling the school to keep its existing third-party
endpoint protection platform. The school wascommitted to the Microsoft solution it already hadin place, so the Sophos MDR service stood out toDave and the Leadership team as it required noduplicate spend. It concurrently enables the school
to take advantage of Sophos’ industry-leading
threat detection and response expertise 24/7/365.

As an existing Sophos customer, Dave had beenvery satisfied with the solutions and services
Sophos had provided previously, so he wasdelighted that Sophos offered an affordable
solution that exactly met the school’s needs.
Furthermore, two other schools within theWoodard group had recently been targeted withcyberattacks and Sophos had successfully
led the response. This further underlined theeffectiveness of the service and promptedthe Leadership team to give the go-ahead.

Business Benefits
Since implementing Sophos MDR,Bloxham School has experienced
significant benefits from the service, including:Ì Cybersecurity protection andpeace of mind 24/7/365
Ì Support from Sophos throughout
implementation and beyondÌ A cost-effective solution, cheaper than otherproviders or establishing capabilities in houseÌ Easy integration of the service alongside
existing infrastructure and solutions
Ì Access to support from Sophos’ industryleading threat detection and response agents

CUSTOMER CASE STUDY BLOXHAM SCHOOLDave highlights the peace of mind Sophos MDRbrings. “I can sleep much better at night, knowing
we’ve got Sophos there monitoring 24/7 andready to respond. To anyone in a similar position
at an educational establishment, I’d recommend
you look into Sophos MDR. It’s a great service
and has made a huge difference for us.”“Taking advantageof the opportunity
to strengthen our
existing infrastructure
and capabilities, withthe expertise Sophos
provides at a costthat’s affordable, wasa no-brainer for us.
Myself, my team, andthe Leadership teamnow have peace ofmind that we’ve got
the skills and expertisebehind us, whatevercomes our way.”
Dave Quinney, Director of IT, Bloxham School

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2024-05-17 CS-EN (PS)