Case Study: Grand Canyon University achieves robust protection from phishing and ransomware with Proofpoint's people-centric security

Proofpoint Keeps Grand Canyon University Protected With People-centric Approach

Grand Canyon University, the largest Christian university in the U.S. with about 19,000 on-campus and 71,000 online students, was overwhelmed by a steady barrage of phishing, credential-theft and ransomware attempts that regularly bypassed its legacy defenses. Security director Michael Manrod arrived in 2017 to find his lean team inundated and concerned that attackers could use the school as a beachhead to reach sensitive research, calendars and contacts—education being one of the most-targeted sectors for email fraud.

GCU deployed Proofpoint’s people-centric stack—Targeted Attack Protection, Email Fraud Defense, Threat Response (with Auto Pull), URL/Browser Isolation, and Data Loss Prevention—to stop malicious attachments and URLs at the gateway, automate incident response, and protect users’ browsing and personal email. The solution blocked and contained thousands of malicious items daily, revealed “Very Attacked People” for targeted protections, improved response times and unified visibility, and shifted the university’s posture toward identity-focused security.

Grand Canyon University

Michael Manrod

Director of Security