Request a demo ›

Boys and Girls Clubs of Puerto Rico Protects M365 Users with Vade for M365

BOYS & GIRLS CLUBS OF PUERTO RICO PROTECTS MICROSOFT 365 USERS FROM TARGETED ATTACKS WHILE IMPROVING IT EFFICIENCY.

1519798914639

Adopted to combat a rise in phishing and malware attacks, Vade for M365 has helped BGCPR block hundreds of threats while cutting helpdesk response time.

About Boys & Girls Clubs of Puerto Rico

Boys & Girls Clubs of Puerto Rico is a non-profit organization with 50 years of service. They are a leader in after-school programs and services for girls and boys between the ages of 6 and 18. They offer a safe and creative place where children develop into leaders who can achieve their academic, personal and professional goals. Their innovative programming is focused on the development of careers and entrepreneurship and they provide children the tools needed to obtain a worthy job that allows them to have economic security.

THE CHALLENGE

By 2017, Boys & Girls Clubs of Puerto Rico’s (BGCPR) journey to the cloud was underway. But then Hurricane Maria swept through the island in October, causing catastrophic damage to thousands of homes and businesses. With most of the Club’s remaining on-premises hardware destroyed in the hurricane, IT Manager/Director Salvador Acevedo resolved to move its entire network off the island to ensure it could provide uninterrupted service to youth across its 14 locations.

1-4

CONCLUSION

Confronted with a rise in phishing, spear phishing, and malware attacks, Boys & Girls Clubs of Puerto Rico realized it needed to augment Microsoft EOP with a third-party solution to better protect its Microsoft 365 users. Choosing Vade for M365, the Club has significantly improved its ability to block targeted attacks (including 400 malicious emails in the first week) while reducing the time its IT help desk spends on ticket response for email threats

 


Microsoft Office 365 became a central component of BGCPR’s cloud migration, and immediately proved a boon to its operations. However, the Club’s 400 Microsoft 365 users soon faced an increase in email-borne threats, including phishing, spear phishing, and malware.

Despite training and awareness-building efforts, Acevedo observed that most employees were largely unaware of social engineering techniques leveraged in phishing and spear phishing emails. Moreover, while Microsoft Exchange Online Protection (EOP) was effective at filtering spam and known threats, the solution didn’t offer sufficient protection against these highly targeted attacks.

The growing number of email attacks left BGCPR vulnerable, while also putting a strain on IT helpdesk staff who had to respond to emailrelated issues and complaints. To alleviate these challenges and develop a more robust security protocol, the organization decided to augment EOP with a third-party solution.

 

 

THE SOLUTION

After a proof of concept, BGCPR selected Vade for M365 to bolster its email defenses. The cloud-based solution performs a comprehensive behavioral analysis of the entire email, including the origin, content, and context. In addition, machine learning algorithms analyze URLs and attachments in real time, offering superior detection of unknown, highly targeted threats. Vade offers a unique advantage in that these models are trained and continuously optimized using data from the 1 billion mailboxes it protects worldwide.

2-3

Another benefit of Vade for M365 was that it is native to Microsoft 365, thanks to its integration with the Microsoft API. That means there’s no disruption in email flow, as well as no external quarantine required since the solution leverages Outlook folders for classification of phishing, spam, and low-priority messages. Acevedo also appreciated that the product’s user-facing elements, such as the warning page for phishing pages detected at the time of click and the in-message spear phishing banner, could be customized with BGCPR’s logo and preferred text. This personalization allows BGCPR to reassure users that they are legitimate warnings coming from the IT department.

All in all, the deployment proved to be quite simple for Acevedo’s team. “It took fifteen minutes, start to finish, to get Vade for M365 up and running in my Microsoft 365 environment,” he noted. “It was very easy.”

BENEFITS FOR BOYS & GIRLS CLUBS OF PUERTO RICO

we-dont-stick-our-departments

Increased email security

With better filtering and more intuitive handling of malicious messages, the Clubs’ email security, and its overall security posture, have improved.

we-dont-stick-our-departments

More productive IT staff

Vade for M365 has led to a drop in help desk requests related to email security. It has also decreased time spent on issue resolution for email security problems. As a result, the IT team can be more productive and focused on core tasks.

we-dont-stick-our-departments

Less stress for end users

There is now less pressure on end users to spot suspicious email messages. They can pay attention to the work that matters most and not be worried about having their devices fall prey to hackers.

3-2

RESULTS

 

The Proof of Concept of Vade for M365 produced results quickly. Within the first week alone, the solution analyzed 40,000 messages and caught no fewer than 400 malicious emails, including phishing, spam and malware. Examples included multiple Microsoft 365 phishing attempts, as well as a fake invoice malware.

Acevedo’s team also noticed a drop in help desk calls dealing with email security issues. The issues that did arise turned out to be easier and faster to handle. Users can call the help desk when they see a suspicious email. The help desk can then put a hold on the sending domain. The process is efficient enough to give back time to the IT staffers who operate the help desk. They are now able to focus on other more urgent matters.

 

 

WHY THEY CHOSE VADE

  • Improvement in detection of targeted email attacks
  • Intuitive user experience
  • Improved IT help desk efficiency

More Case Studies

NICLOUD

Nifcloud reduces customer inquiries, increases threat detection rate with Vade. 

Discover the case study

KVC Health Systems

Adopting Vade for M365 resulted in a 15% or higher improvement from previous solutions.

 

Discover the case study