Industry
K-12 Education
Employees
11,000+
Region
Mississauga, Canada
IT Environment
Hybrid cloud infrastructure spanning 150+ schools, 80,000 users, and 11,000+ endpoints
Solutions
- Experienced zero critical security alerts since April 2024
- Gained visibility across 11,000 endpoints
- Significantly lowered risk score by identifying and mitigating an unpatched database server
THE CHALLENGE
Keeping student data and devices safe and compliant across a vast K–12 environment
As one of Canada’s largest school boards, Dufferin-Peel Catholic District School Board (DPCDSB) operates over 150 schools for 70,000 students and thousands of staff. With decades of records to protect and strict regulations to follow, they face significant security challenges. Data must be retained for 55 years, and new provincial demands for managed detection and response (MDR) and tighter social-media controls keep them constantly vigilant. The IT team battles sophisticated cyberattacks on tight budgets and lean staff, while legacy apps and a diverse user base necessitate ongoing education and security awareness.
“School boards are a perfect target for bad actors because we have large amounts of data,” says DPCDSB Chief Information Officer Ivana MacIsaac. “We have a large user community we must keep educated. And with new regulations requiring social media protections for our students, we want to make sure that they’re always protected within the school board environment.”
TrendAI Vision One™ Cyber Risk Exposure Management (CREM) helped DPCDSB identify an unpatched database server experiencing issues, and after patching, the district will be able to reduce the server’s risk score significantly.
THE SOLUTION
TrendAI Vision One™ and managed detection and response create a safer digital environment
To address these challenges and stay ahead of the curve, DPCDSB expanded their long-standing partnership with TrendAI by implementing TrendAI Vision One™ Services – Managed Detection and Response (MDR). “Having MDR in place is critical,” says MacIsaac. “It gives us peace of mind, knowing we have a partner available monitoring our environment 24/7.”
Strengthened endpoint protection
With more than 11,000 endpoints across school and home environments, the DPCDSB security team places particular value on the visibility provided by TrendAI Vision One™ Endpoint Security, which enables the team to identify vulnerable workstations that require attention. This enables them to detect, isolate, and remediate threats quickly. “We can now see every detail of endpoint networking activity; the depth and volume of incoming data is remarkable,” says DPCDSB Network and Security Analyst John Trembly. “XDR agents give us direct control over the system. We can isolate an endpoint, run scripts, or open a CMD window to investigate. Thankfully, we haven’t needed to use those capabilities yet, but it’s reassuring to know they’re there.”
Proactive defense with MDR
TrendAI Vision One™ MDR relieves DPCDSB’s internal IT staff of constant monitoring, freeing them to focus on compliance and long-term strategy. “With TrendAI Vision One™, we have not had a single critical alert,” says Trembly. “And we don’t have to worry so much about threat hunting or ‘minding the gate’ when we have MDR doing it for us.”
Closing security gaps
DPCDSB uses TrendAI Vision One™ Server and Workload Security (SWP) to secure servers and cloud systems. TrendAI Vision One™ utilizes cyber risk exposure management to assist the district’s IT team in identifying forgotten databases and outdated images, facilitating targeted patching and enhanced collaboration with administrators. This proactive capability not only closes security gaps but also helps the board align with stringent provincial and federal mandates, ensuring that both student and staff data remain protected.
"DPCDSB has not experienced any critical security alerts since going live with [TrendAI Vision One™] in April 2024."
John Trembly
Network and Security Analyst, DPCDSB
Having MDR in place is critical. It gives us peace of mind, knowing we have a partner available monitoring our environment 24/7.
Chief Information Officer, DPCDSB
Ivana MacIsaac
RESULTS
Real-world improvements in visibility, response time, and overall security posture
DPCDSB has transformed its cybersecurity strategy in partnership with TrendAI. Continuous monitoring, proactive containment, and actionable reporting have delivered measurable improvements across the district.
Enhanced visibility and detailed reporting provide a clear view of the district’s security posture, making it easier to secure funding for cyber awareness training and demonstrate compliance. “Our IT team can quickly identify outdated devices and legacy applications, remediate vulnerabilities, and drive risk scores down to safer levels,” says Tremblay. “Security staff also have assurance that threats will be detected and contained even during weekends and holidays.”
TrendAI Vision One™ has uncovered forgotten devices and outdated servers, allowing IT to address risks before they become exploitable. Reports now serve as a powerful communication tool, helping leadership understand threats, justify funding, and support training, while upcoming features will help quantify the true cost of incidents.
NEXT STEPS
A responsive trusted partner invested in student and staff safety
Working with TrendAI has felt less like engaging a vendor and more like adding a trusted extension of the district’s own team. When a past misconfiguration was exposed in the district, TrendAI engineers stayed on the line for 15 hours to guide the team through the fix. Later, when malware hit before a holiday, they quickly contained the threat, scanned the network, and sped the move to MDR— avoiding classroom disruption.
TrendAI staff doesn’t disappear once a ticket is opened. “Getting critical issues fixed is never a problem,” says Trembly. “There’s always somebody who knows a different part of the system, how to set it up, and how to run it effectively.”
ABOUT TRENDAI
TrendAI™, the enterprise business unit of Trend Micro and the global leader in AI security, empowers enterprises, governments, and organizations with proactive solutions designed to inspire innovation and reduce risk.
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