How Wellington Catholic District School Board Strengthened Cybersecurity with Arctic Wolf

‍Wellington Catholic District School Board (Wellington CDSB) oversees approximately 24schools and administrative facilities, serving more than 9,000 students and staff across the Wellington region. Like many educational institutions, the board faces a rapidly evolving cyber threat landscape, with ransomware, phishing, and data privacy breaches becoming more frequent and sophisticated.

Recognizing the urgent need for stronger cybersecurity defences, Wellington CDSB sought a modern solution to safeguard sensitive student and staff data, while also ensuring compliance with ministry regulations, insurance mandates, and recognized security standards.

Already considered among the more advanced boards in terms of cybersecurity maturity, Wellington CDSB had been proactively improving its defenses for several years.

However, the IT team, though highly capable, was small and resource-constrained, limiting its ability to provide comprehensive, around-the-clock monitoring and rapid incident response. As threats continued to evolve, the board faced several critical challenges:

• Limited internal cybersecurity resources and expertise.
• Rising threats including ransomware, phishing, and targeted cyberattacks.
• Increasing compliance pressures from privacy laws, ministry regulations, and insurance providers.
• The need for 24x7monitoring and guided incident response without adding significant internal overhead.

To address these challenges, Wellington CDSB selected Arctic Wolf’s Managed Detection and Response (MDR) service to deliver 24/7monitoring, guided incident response, and a scalable security operations framework. The board partnered with Cloud Managed Networks (CMN) to facilitate the procurement process — leveraging their expertise in vendor negotiation to ensure the project met both technical goals and strict budget requirements.

Arctic Wolf’s MDR service was deployed within 48 hours, thanks to the solution’s robust documentation and the Wellington IT team’s technical capability. Throughout implementation, Arctic Wolf provided clear guidance and weekly check-ins to support configuration and training.

Tailored to the board’s environment, the solution included:

• 24x7 Security Operations Center (SOC) monitoring by Arctic Wolf experts.
• Continuous threat hunting and anomaly detection across the network.
• Guided incident response and remediation support to contain and resolve threats quickly.
• Ongoing security posture assessments with actionable recommendations to strengthen defences.

Arctic Wolf’s 24x7 SOC and Concierge Security Team act as an extension of Wellington’s staff, providing expert guidance and regular posture reviews to help the board stay ahead of emerging threats.

Arctic Wolf detected and contained a serious cyber incursion within minutes, stopping a potential breach before it escalated. As Peter VanDorp, Cybersecurity Analyst and Network Operations Supervisor, noted, the experience proved the solution had paid for itself within the first month.

Since deploying Arctic Wolf MDR, Wellington CDSB has realized significant improvements to its cybersecurity posture:

• Reduced dwell time with faster detection and response to potential threats.
•  Improved visibility into network activity, vulnerabilities, and user behavior.
• Focused high level alerts, allowing IT staff to know which alerts to act on, giving time to focus on supporting learning technologies and operations.
• Simplified, audit-ready reporting for compliance with ministry and insurance requirements.
• Ongoing security posture in-depth reviews that align with global cybersecurity standards.

Arctic Wolf has positioned itself as a leader in managed security. Their MDR service gives us 24/7 coverage and expert guidance from their team around the world. The fact that they caught a threat within minutes of deployment proved the value immediately.

— Peter VanDorp, Cybersecurity Analyst and Network Operations Supervisor, Wellington CDSB