Case Study: University of San Francisco achieves rapid phishing response, stronger security and greater transparency with Splunk Cloud (Splunk)

University of San Francisco Promotes Efficiency, Increases Transparency With Splunk Cloud SIEM

The University of San Francisco (USF), a Jesuit university serving about 10,000 students and 2,500 faculty and staff, needed to strengthen its security posture, protect PII and ensure PCI compliance. The Information Security and Compliance team lacked visibility into incidents, had slow phishing investigations, and needed a baseline for IT security health and executive-level transparency.

USF deployed Splunk Cloud with integrations (ServiceNow, Palo Alto Networks, Qualys, Cisco Cloudlock) to centralize logs and automate meaningful alerts—reminding staff to complete training, notifying supervisors, and prompting password/AV updates. The result: faster phishing investigations (from days to minutes), ensured PCI compliance, improved security awareness, and greater transparency and engagement across the university.

University of San Francisco

Nick Recchia

ISC Director and Information Security Officer