Case Study: Centennial School District achieves 24x7 threat monitoring and reclaims 2 hours per day with Critical Start

Centennial School District - Customer Case Study

Centennial School District, a K–12 district of about 5,900 students in Bucks County, PA, faced growing cyber risk as remote learning expanded and a neighboring district suffered a ransomware attack. With Fran Watkins as the lone network and systems administrator, the district needed 24x7 monitoring and a partner that would work with its existing tools, so it turned to Critical Start’s Managed Detection and Response (MDR) and staffed Security Operations Center (SOC).

Critical Start deployed a technology-agnostic MDR/SOC, built a trusted alert registry, and applied an “every alert matters” philosophy to reduce noise and find real threats. In one recent month the service handled 800 security events, reduced 776 alerts to 9 SOC alerts with 7 escalations, and gave Watkins roughly 2 hours per day back—improving detection, response, and the district’s overall peace of mind.

Centennial School District

Fran Watkins

Network and Systems Administrator