CUSTOMER CASE STUDY TANGLIN TRUST SCHOOL

Tanglin Trust School is an international
school in Singapore providing Britishbased learning with an international
perspective for students aged three to18. Established in 1925, Tanglin Trust
School runs as a non-profit organisation.
CUSTOMER-AT-A-GLANCE
Tanglin Trust School
Singapore

Websitehttps://www.tts.edu.sg

Industry
Education

Number of Users
630 employees in Singapore
2,820 students in Singapore

Sophos Solutions
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CUSTOMER CASE STUDY TANGLIN TRUST SCHOOL‘Our partnership with Sophos saves us the challenge of researching andanalysing cybersecurity threats on our own. Sophos has some of thebest people and global resources and provides us with the informationand digital security we need, not just from an education or school
perspective but also from a Singapore and Asia Pacific perspective.’
Keith Rutherford, Director of Technology at Tanglin Trust SchoolChallenges
Ì The school needs to manage and protect a wide
range of computers, laptops and other digital
devices from cyberattacks and suspicious
online threats for students and staff.

Ì With the move to work and learn fromhome, the level of security is at a higher
risk compared to on campus.

Ì With a strong foundation of cybersecurity
in place with Sophos, the school still closely
monitors for human error and complacency.

Company profile
With more than 95 years of experience, Tanglin
Trust School is the only school in Singapore to offer
both International Baccalaureate and A-Level atSixth Form. Tanglin provides the English National
Curriculum with an international perspective tochildren from 3 to 18 years and is a vibrant coeducational school. Assessed within the British
Schools Overseas framework, all three schools(Infant, Junior and Senior) have been consistently
awarded Outstanding, the highest possible grade.
The school educates over 2,800 students withmore than 15,000 alumni on record of more than
50 nationalities.
Tanglin Trust School will celebrate its centenary in2025.

How do you protect devices
when they are not in sight?
With a large student and staff population, Tanglin
Trust School must ensure all its digital networks anddevices are safe and secure. Employees use a mixof desktop and mobile devices across Microsoftand Apple-based systems. Additionally, some staff
work on campus while some are working remotelyin Singapore and other countries, posing somecybersecurity risks.
Students up to year five have access to schoolowned devices while those from year six onwards
bring their own devices to school. This equates toabout 1,300 computers and devices that are synced
onto the school’s system across 2,400 users.

CUSTOMER CASE STUDY TANGLIN TRUST SCHOOL“We need something extremely flexible that works
in multiple environments and gives us a highlevel of assurance that the data in our systems
is all protected,” said Keith Rutherford, Director ofTechnology, Tanglin Trust School.
The COVID-19 situation also posed a hugechallenge as the school shifted to remote learningand working. In some cases, students who did nothave devices at home or had to share with family
members were allowed to borrow devices from theschool.
“We had no control over their home network, andwe didn’t know what protections they had fortheir routers and modems. We also did not knowwhat sites staff and students who are using own
devices were accessing when at home. We werein the unknown in terms of what was happening

on those devices,” Rutherford recalled. This was amajor change from when the campus operated onsite where IT staff had full control to manage theschool’s network, firewall and servers.
Sophos next-generation cybersecurity software
ensures a level of protection is in place before
devices are hooked into the school’s network even if
they are off site.

What do the numbers show?
With detailed monthly reports from Sophos, Tanglin
Trust School can keep track of the possible threatsthat are being prevented. A total of 1,400 digitalassets are protected by Sophos and the data
showed that more than 120 threats were blocked in
one month.

Out of the monthly cases, the majority weremalware, where hackers were trying to install
software applications from suspicious internet
sites, causing malicious damage to the device andsystem.
Being able to clearly see the number of threats
blocked by Sophos reflects the value the schoolis getting from its investment in digital security.
“Having this endpoint protection is the first line ofdefense for us,” Rutherford said.

CUSTOMER CASE STUDY TANGLIN TRUST SCHOOL

How do you avoid humanerrors?
Even with a top-notch cybersecurity system inplace, Tanglin Trust School still experience staff
or students falling victim to phishing threats.
Thankfully, Sophos software ensures the threats do
not get any further than the device itself - ensuring
no data is lost and control of the corporate support
and teaching systems is maintained.
The school offers cybersecurity awareness byregularly sharing information with staff aboutphishing attacks, such as the best practices forpasswords. For constant reinforcement, the school
also conducts phishing exercises where a phishingemail is sent to test the user’s awareness of andability to identify a phishing attempt.
Digital security is also built into the students’learning. As part of the technology subject
throughout all levels, from infant school upwards,
the school arms students with knowledge toprotect their digital assets, data, online identity andinformation.
Rutherford finds that students are generally getting
more aware of protecting their information andprivacy these days, as they are being educatedabout the issue from a young age. However, theschool still relies on Sophos to protect the students
as there are instances when possible threats areoverlooked.

Tanglin Trust School also uses information provided
by Sophos to tailor its cybersecurity awarenessefforts and internal training. Rutherford shared,“Sophos provides relevant information, such asdetails regarding existing and new threats. We
take that general information in order to adapt it
and share with our staff, students, and our broader
community.”

What’s next for Tanglin Trust
School?
With its existing strong partnership, Tanglin Trust
School plans to work more closely with Sophos toidentify any potential gaps and weaknesses withinthe school’s digital security systems that Sophos
can fill.
“We see Sophos as a key part of our threatprotection set-up. We want a good, strong, andclose partnership that is beyond the typical vendorcustomer dynamic. We want Sophos to feel likethey are a part of our school so that together wecan protect the school and all the people in it,”
Rutherford concluded.

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