CUSTOMER CASE STUDY COVENTRY SCHOOL FOUNDATION

Sophos Managed Detection
and Response provides
round-the-clock peace ofmind for Coventry SchoolFoundation
Coventry School Foundation is an outstanding provider of education foraround 2,500 pupils aged 3-18, with history stretching back over 670 years. It
comprises five schools, including the historic Bablake School, founded in 1344
and King Henry VIII School, founded in 1545.

CUSTOMER-AT-A-GLANCE
Coventry School Foundation
Industry
Education
Number of users
2,500

Sophos Customer
Since 2020
Sophos Solutions
Sophos Managed Detection and Response (MDR)
Sophos Email AdvancedCUSTOMER CASE STUDY COVENTRY SCHOOL FOUNDATION“The malware attack took almost a month of our teamworking round the clock to recover our servers andnetworks, and during that time every user was incapableof connecting to our network following the attack. We
never want this to happen again, so it was clear weneeded to step up our approach to cybersecurity.“
Tim Lees, Network Manager, Coventry School Foundation

Coventry School Foundation recently merged its
networks from across all of its five sites. Afterthe merger, the IT team became responsiblefor managing around 3,000 computers as wellas all printing, mobile phones, Microsoft Office
365 and Microsoft Teams. The team also faced
cybersecurity challenges and had experienced
a previous ransomware attack which encrypted
the Foundation’s entire network including
backups, resulting in the network being unusable
for almost a month.
The team at the Foundation decided to take a
far more robust approach to cybersecurity. Afterreviewing a number of solutions, they opted
for Sophos Managed Detection and Response(MDR) to provide a comprehensive managed
cybersecurity service with full protection
24/7/365.

Business challenges
The ransomware attack the Foundation experienced
occurred just before Christmas and the IT teamworked 24/7 to get the network rebuilt and theFoundation back online. As they did so, they foundthat all backups had been encrypted and cloud
backups were not available. Fortunately, there were
snapshots available on the storage area network,
which enabled the team to rebuild the network.
In light of the impact of the attack, Tim Lees, Network
Manager at the Foundation became acutely awareof the need to scale up cybersecurity protection. TheIT team joined a webinar with the Sophos technicalteam to find out about the cybersecurity product,
Sophos Extended Detection and Response (XDR) for
increased cybersecurity cover. While Sophos XDR
would detect cyber threats and security weaknesses,
it would still require an in-house cybersecurity

expert to manage and respond to any issues, but theFoundation didn’t have this resource available. Tim
also reviewed the cybersecurity insurance they had inplace but found this only provided cover for mop-up
after an attack and advice on the best course of action
to take, but did not provide any additional protection.
The Foundation therefore needed to either employ afull-time cybersecurity expert or upgrade to Sophos
Managed Detection and Response (MDR) for acomprehensive managed cybersecurity as a service(CaaS).

CUSTOMER CASE STUDY COVENTRY SCHOOL FOUNDATIONThe Technical Solution
The team at the Foundation considered theiroptions and found that the cost of employing afull-time cybersecurity expert was comparable withopting for Sophos MDR but that with MDR, the teamwould get constant protection, 24/7, 365 days peryear.
Sophos MDR now provides the Foundation witha fully managed service delivered by a dedicatedteam of experts and threat hunters who provide
round-the-clock monitoring, threat-hunting andresponse. The team detects, investigates andresponds to threats in minutes and also provides
cybersecurity advice.

Business Benefits
For a small IT team comprising two Network
Managers and six technicians with responsibility
for thousands of endpoints, Sophos MDR provides
peace of mind that the Foundation’s cybersecurity
is taken care of, even outside working hours.

Tim is also satisfied that the service is working as itshould be, following the recent detection of a newsoftware installation which was flagged up. Even
though there was no follow up action required, Timsays he sees this as proof that the service is doing
exactly what it should be.
The benefits Tim highlights are:
Ì Confidence around cybersecurity andransomware protection for all five schools
Ì More time for IT staff to work on otherprojects instead of monitoring threatsÌ A fully managed solution that meetsthe Foundation’s budget
Ì Assurance that sensitive school data is secureÌ Excellent 24/7 support and regularcontact with Sophos
Ì An easy, successful, and fasttransition to the service
Ì Peace of mind, day and night“We live in a world
today where hackers
are getting more andmore sophisticatedand targeting
establishments likeours. We just don’t
have the resources
in-house to be able
to combat threatsourselves.”
Tim Lees, Network Manager,
Coventry School Foundation

Tim reports that the transition to Sophos MDR
couldn’t have been easier. The Sophos engineers
conducted a preliminary health check and made a
few minor changes to the network. Following this, it
was all up and running very quickly. Tim particularly
values the weekly reports, together with any reports
triggered by abnormal activity on the network.

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solutions, call (0)8447 671131
or email sales@sophos.com© Copyright 2023 Sophos Ltd. All rights reserved.
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23-01-06 CCS-EN (NP)