G.A.I.N. – powered by Lowe’s
A skilled volunteer delivered a security assessment to S.T.A.R.S. Math and English Academy, to help protect their operations as they grow.
S.T.A.R.S. improves students’ foundational skills in math, English, and reading using a balanced curriculum that focuses on academic rigor while enriching these subjects with soft skills. Last year, S.T.A.R.S. provided academic enrichment for 176 students in 86 Charlotte-area schools through Virtual Math Camp and Virtual EOG Boot Camp programs.
S.T.A.R.S. has completed their final step in G.A.I.N., an Apparo program generously sponsored by Lowe’s and EY. During this phase, they received security education and also the support of skilled volunteer, Geoff Aslaksen, who partnered with Apparo and S.T.A.R.S. to understand their current security practices and identify areas for remediation, including an incident response plan.
After completion of this project, we checked in with Tawruss Sellars of S.T.A.R.S. to learn about the significance and anticipated impact. Tawruss shares, “Before this project, we took steps to protect our organization, but our security wasn’t centralized, and it wasn’t robust. We were ok for our small team, but now we are aware of security measures that will be important for us as we grow and add more staff. We are centralizing our anti-virus software, more careful about how we share files externally and now have an incident response plan, in case something goes wrong. I especially appreciate Geoff helping us identify the quick wins, which were very helpful, like around the way we handle passwords.”
Volunteer Geoffrey Aslaksen shared, “I enjoyed my time working with S.T.A.R.S. assisting them with seeing the value of cyber security planning even on a smaller scale. I believe the lessons they learned and plan we have put in place will serve them well if they ever face a true security incident.”
