University Finds a Way to Protect Students in the Digital and Physical World
Business Overview
This Ivy League University is located in the American Northeast and is considered one of the most prestigious schools in the country for both undergraduate and graduate coursework. The school services over 18,000 students. It has an endowment of over $10 billion and employs nearly 10,000 staff. With a well established community entrusting the university's online presence, the university needs comprehensive brand security on social media.
A Lack of Brand Security on Social Media Endangers Community
Throughout 2016 and early 2017, the university was struggling with applicant scams, domain squatters and other risks emerging from social media. With such a vibrant online community composed of students, athletes, university accounts, organizational and departmental accounts, staff, faculty and all the buzz surrounding the school and its research, attackers recognized the opportunity to inject their malicious aims into the vibrant social media landscape of the school.
To make matters worse, intentionally or not, the school’s own community posed risks. This included the potential for account hijacking, school or athletic representatives posting offensive content, or students leaking sensitive information related to the school. The university was faced with a diversity of challenges outside of their network, unregulated and uncontrolled by their existing infrastructure.
The school recognized that in the social media age, security teams at educational organizations need full visibility into their social media footprint. They need to identify both cyber risks and physical risks, either from their own community or third-party actors. Social media was an extension of their university community. So, it should be protected as a natural extension of the information security program.
ZeroFox Covers a Critical Blind Spot for the University
The university began using ZeroFox in mid-2017 to takedown applicant and fake diploma scams, find domain squatting, identify any physical threats in the event of an emergency, prevent FERPA violations, protect their community, and extend their visibility into social media. The school receives, on average, just under 10 quality alerts per day that require their attention. This spikes at the beginning and end of the semester, during athletic events or if the university has recently published newsworthy research.
Given the magnitude of social media, we view ZeroFOX as a natural extension of our
security technology stack. They’re covering a critical blindspot for us.”
ZeroFox also discovered a surprising number of risks on less public social networks and paste sites, including Tumblr and Pastebin. The school did not previously know that these risks, which included student PII and fraudulent diplomas, existed.
The university is particularly interested in identifying threats of violence. ZeroFox uses machine learning to find potential threats in dozens of languages. As an international school, this is critical for protecting their diverse student body. Physical threats often manifest themselves online before the attack itself. And the security team escalates ZeroFox violence alerts during major campus events. This system provides an early or real-time warning system for if something were to occur on campus.
Brand Security on Social Media Leads to Decrease in Diploma Scams
ZeroFox has seen a 30% decrease in diploma scams month over month since the university became a customer. And ZeroFox has issued dozens of successful takedowns on the customer’s behalf, mainly scammers and spoofed university or athletic accounts. The security team currently uses ZeroFox to protect key administrators, events, athletics, physical buildings, the campus, and the school’s brand image as well as the school’s broader social media community. They are looking to expand coverage to other organizations and academic departments.