Case Study: University of Sunderland achieves zero-trust security and easier, phishing-resistant logins with Duo Security

University of Sunderland - Customer Case Study

The University of Sunderland, a global institution of more than 20,000 students with campuses in Sunderland, London and Hong Kong, pursued a five‑year cloud‑first/digital‑first strategy and needed a modern authentication approach. The challenge was to adopt a zero‑trust solution that could verify identities, protect access across diverse technologies and user skill levels, and remain easy to use for faculty, staff and students.

After evaluating vendors such as RSA, Symantec and Okta, the university implemented Duo’s zero‑trust platform, placing it in front of critical systems and rolling out SSO and Duo Push for cloud apps. Within eight months the deployment reduced phishing risk, increased productivity, cut help‑desk tickets, achieved over 85% Duo Push adoption, integrated with minimal code, and delivered stronger security with low user overhead and responsive vendor support.

University of Sunderland

Andrew Spenceley

Cyber Security Architect