The Challenge

Finding a security solution that stops infected emails from reaching school administrators and reducing when dealing with email phishing and spoofing.

The Solution

An email security solution that supports Google and Microsoft email platforms and improves their capabilities. A solution that automatically blocks suspicious emails, preventing phishing and spoofing from entering a school’s email system.

The Value

Time saved

“Coro takes care of more than 80% of security issues. This brings down the time I spend on security daily from about two hours to around 10 minutes.”

Improved security hygiene

“Automation ensures a better security blanket than I can offer. It catches things I could have missed, it eliminates human error. I’m prone to missing things that Coro picks up on regularly.” – Kenny Shannon, IT Director at Taos Academy

Faster response time

“If Coro didn’t block suspicious emails and only notified me, it could be a while before I get the alert and respond. This time is critical for a security event to happen. So Coro cuts down on critical response time.”  – Kenny Shannon, IT Director at Taos Academy

Ease of use

“It’s an intuitive system, so I find I don’t have to read forums and look through manuals as much to operate it. Which, unfortunately, is a common thing when adopting new products.”  – Kenny Shannon, IT Director at Taos Academy

About the School 

• 300+ students
• 50+ staff members
• 1 IT director
• 1 IT intern

Taos Academy (TA) is a state-funded charter school, serving grades 5-12, in New Mexico. The school opened in 2009, offering a hybrid learning model that combines direct and digital instruction. TA has a growing student body of several hundred students and over 50 faculty members. The school’s cybersecurity is managed by a single IT director, who has a broad range of other responsibilities.

The Challenge: Achieving Optimal Email Security Without Increasing Workload

TA faced a particular set of challenges when it came to the school’s email security and its vulnerability to phishing and spoofing attacks.

Email Overload 

School administrators and staff are inundated with many emails daily. This volume of emails, combined with a lack of experience in identifying suspicious emails, makes it challenging for administrators to identify phishing and spoofing attempts. Security training for faculty and staff can be a good second line of defense, but it is not enough to defend against more sophisticated phishing tactics. Staff might overlook security protocols and are prone to human error, even with regular security training.

An Insufficient Existing Email Security Solution 

TA was using Google Workspace, which offers basic email protection. However, this platform does not stop more sophisticated phishing attacks, rendering it an insufficient solution for TA’s data protection needs. Shannon needed a solution that would support Google Workspace and add an extra layer of security to their email system.

Limited IT Resources

With only one IT person responsible for all cybersecurity needs alongside a range of other IT tasks, Shannon was stretched thin. The heavy burden placed on his shoulders made it difficult to address security needs as promptly and thoroughly as he wanted to.

Delayed Response Time

Email security alerts, such as for domain blocking, often require immediate action to keep cyberthreats at bay. TA’s one-man IT team wasn’t always able to address email security fast enough.

Overly Complex Tools

TA’s security stack consisted of multiple tools that required complex configurations and ongoing upkeep. A lack of IT resources meant that Shannon needed a simpler and more self-sufficient tool when it came to adding an email security solution to his stack. He needed a tool that would handle critical security incidents without adding to the workload.

The Solution:

An Automated Security Tool that Resolves Email Security Threats While Reducing IT Workload

TA found Coro’s email security tool a time saving and workload reducing solution, that effectively safeguards against phishing and spoofing.

“A couple of other systems came up when I was researching for a solution, but they were not up to par with Coro,” Shannon said.

Products that offer email security mostly focus on training — sending mock phishing emails to staff to test their security competence. This ends up adding to administrators’ workload rather than reducing it. These solutions require administrators to attend periodic security training workshops and then implement security alertness in their daily practices.

Educational solutions alone slow them down and add to their stress. They also lend themselves to protocol oversights and human error. “While training capabilities and support may be good for certain purposes, they add to the workload of our staff, which goes against what I was trying to do,” Shannons said.

Coro proved to be an ideal solution because its focus isn’t solely on educating. It acts as a first line of defense, identifying suspicious emails early and blocking harmful ones before they make their way into the organization. On the side of educating email users, Coro offers the ability to send educational materials through the console. By using Coro, Shannon was able to protect his staff without adding to his own workload.

Shannon chose Coro for its automation capabilities, which caught things he had missed. 


“I wanted something that would be more comprehensive, more active, and participatory, especially when it came to the school administrators and office staff, because they are dealing with dozens and dozens of emails every single day,” he explained.

Shannon explained that Coro played a significant role in cutting down on critical response time. 

Shannon reports feeling the effects of Coro immediately.

“It completely altered workloads for myself, the administrators, and the school staff,” he said.

The onboarding process was seamless and effective. Thanks to Coro’s behavioral analysis, which molds and adjusts the tool over time, accuracy grew and security precision continued to evolve over time.

Initially, Coro didn’t recognize certain domains, such as those from the state or the local education department. However, after approving these flagged emails, Coro adapted and did not flag these domains again. That dramatically reduced the number of tickets he had to manually review.

Taos Academy was impressed with Coro’s continued evolution.

“The experience over the past year has been that the product keeps evolving. There were new features added over time,” Shannon recalled.

He noted that Coro is an intuitive product to begin with. “I don’t have to read forums and look through manuals as much to operate it. Which, unfortunately, is a common thing when adopting new products,” he explained.

Yet the improvements that are constantly being made make a significant change to functionality. “I don’t have to click around too much to figure out how to do what I want to do,” he summed up.

The Value: Ticking All the Boxes

The best thing Coro has given me is taking away the heavy lifting, Shannon concludes. It is a combination of time saved, a cost-effective approach, and the peace of mind that email security is covered.

Who We Are

Coro is a market leader in the modular security space, providing enterprise-grade cybersecurity to distributed businesses with lean IT teams. Relying on advanced AI capabilities, the Coro platform automatically detects, analyzes, and remediates security threats faced by today’s businesses, significantly reducing the security burdens placed on IT teams.

The company has been named a leader in G2-Grid for EDR/MDR, received Triple A grading (AAA) from the testing institute SE LABS, and won awards for best performer by customer reviews. Coro is based in Chicago with offices in New York City, London, Israel, and caters to over 5,000 customers globally.