ActZero, Five Star Partner to Fortify Cybersecurity in K-12 Schools

NEW ALBANY, Ind., Feb. 7, 2024  -- ActZero, a leading cybersecurity provider for small and medium-sized organizations, announced its strategic expansion into the K-12 education market in collaboration with Five Star Technology Solutions. Based in southern Indiana, Five Star has been supporting the unique technology needs of K-12 schools across the US since 2005. This partnership aims to address growing cybersecurity challenges faced by Indiana and Illinois school districts. By combining their expertise, ActZero and Five Star will offer school districts a full-stack and fair-priced Managed Detection and Response (MDR) Service, including a 24/7 Security Operations Center (SOC).

According to a U.S. Government Accountability Office report, the loss of learning following a cyberattack ranged from three days to three weeks, and recovery time can take anywhere from two to nine months. In addition, school districts may lose between $50,000 to $1 million per cyber incident. School districts, especially smaller and rural school districts, which make up more than 70 percent of US districts, often lack sufficient resources, making their student data more vulnerable. According to a CoSN Survey, only one-third of districts allocate a full-time employee to network security, leaving two-thirds feeling inadequately equipped to tackle cyber threats.

"Attackers are becoming increasingly more targeted and sophisticated. Districts shouldn't be left trying to figure out the latest attack strategies in order to protect their students," said co-founder and VP of Partnerships Hal Libby. "ActZero is thrilled to partner with Five Star Technology Solutions to bring cutting-edge cybersecurity solutions to Indiana and Illinois school districts to prepare for the future. Our joint efforts aim to strengthen schools and districts, ensuring a secure learning environment for everyone."

ActZero provides security coverage of a district's entire IT environment and combines its AI, expert threat hunters, and 24/7 protection across endpoints, mobile devices, networks, identity, cloud, and email accounts – all conveniently bundled into one service contract. Schools and districts report less noise and false alerts for their teams to investigate at a cost-effective price point for smaller teams.

"The threat landscape has rapidly evolved and expanded to specifically target student data in K-12 schools. Five Star is excited to partner with ActZero to provide a solution that offers the protection schools need along with the staffing necessary to render 24/7 surveillance of the key areas of vulnerability," said Nathan Davidson, Vice President of Technology Services. "ActZero is the ideal strategic partner to help Five Star best secure the systems and data that are crucial to maintaining continuity of learning."

About ActZero

ActZero is a Managed Detection & Response (MDR) service providing a powerful full-stack cybersecurity solution at a fair price. Cybersecurity shouldn't be complicated. We combined our patent-pending AI technology with expert threat hunters into a service with 24/7 protection across endpoints, networks, mobile devices, cloud, identity, and email accounts. Our AI works across disparate data sources, providing auto-blocking and high-fidelity detections – meaning fewer alerts and false positives – while taking action at machine speed on your behalf. For more information, please visit actzero.com.

About Five Star Technology Solutions

Five Star Technology Solutions has been helping K-12 school districts meet the unique technology needs of their students and staff since 2005. We believe that technology should amplify students' learning experiences. From professional learning & technical services to data analytics & cybersecurity solutions, our team has the specific experience to support K-12 school districts of all shapes & sizes. Learn more at fivestartech.com.

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