Beyond EDR: How Government and Education Organizations Detect Zero Day Attacks Before They Become Costly Breaches
South Western City Schools (Ohio) and a county government office (Idaho) onboard Invary’s Runtime Integrity validation for Windows and Linux systems
Hidden security gaps within operating systems and endpoint defenses are incredibly costly. The average ransomware recovery cost for state and local governments reached $2.83M in 2024, more than double the previous year. For K-12 schools, mean ransoms hit $7.46M, with downtime costing $548K per day. Yet 57% of serious intrusions go undetected by organizations' own security tools.
Across state & local governments and educational institutions, IT leaders face the challenge of protecting critical systems and sensitive data within complex, resource-constrained environments.
From school districts serving thousands of students to county governments providing essential public services, these organizations share a common goal: maintaining secure, trusted computing environments while defending against evolving cyber threats.
Two CIS member organizations, South Western City Schools in Ohio and a county government in Idaho, asked a critical question: if an attack is happening below where our security tools can see, would we know?
Both discovered the answer was no, that even robust endpoint detection and response (EDR) tools leave unseen vulnerabilities, and both turned to Invary as the solution to gain independent validation of system integrity, detect zero day attacks, and ensure their defenses are performing as expected.
The Challenge: Hidden Exposure Beneath Traditional Security Tools
Traditional security tools like EDR play a key role in defending against known threats. However, attackers have developed advanced techniques to disable, bypass, or evade these solutions before launching attacks.
For South Western City Schools, this trend raised concerns about whether their EDR systems could be silently compromised.
"With EDR bypass tools becoming increasingly more common in ransomware operations, we were looking for a tool that could validate the integrity of our Windows and Linux systems to ensure the EDR is working as it should,” said Rob Moore, Director of Technology and Information Services.
For a county government’s security team, Invary revealed a blind spot that had previously gone undetected.
"There was a problem, but I was unaware of it. When I was introduced to Invary I found out I had a vital part of our security that was exposed. I thought that the EDR we were using had sufficient coverage,” he explained.
Both organizations realized that without visibility into the integrity of the operating system itself, they could not be fully confident in the effectiveness of their existing tools.
The Solution: Runtime Integrity Validation
Invary’s runtime integrity validation platform continuously verifies the trustworthiness of Windows and Linux systems, detecting tampering and unauthorized changes that traditional tools may miss.
"Invary can immediately detect OS kernel tampering and never-seen attacks. Invary confirms the state of the kernel and memory, which allows detection irrespective of knowing the tactics and techniques the bad guys use to attack a system,” said Peterson.
By confirming that systems remain in a known and trusted state, Invary provides an independent layer of assurance that strengthens and validates the organization’s broader cybersecurity posture.
Deployment Experience: Simple, Fast, and Supported
The security teams of both South Western City Schools and county government office highlighted the ease of deploying Invary and the responsiveness of the Invary team.
"Super easy to set up and monitor,” said Moore.
"The Cortex blocking of Invary was resolved by the extraordinary cooperation from Invary’s and Cortex’s teams. Invary has been very helpful in giving advice on the few false-positive alerts we have received,” added Peterson.
The straightforward setup allowed both organizations to gain immediate insight into the trustworthiness of their systems without adding operational burden.
Results: Independent Assurance and Greater Confidence
With Invary in place, both organizations now have continuous, independent validation that their systems remain secure and uncompromised. Invary gives them confidence that their security tools are active and functioning as intended, closing visibility gaps left by traditional solutions.
For state and local governments and educational institutions, Invary delivers a powerful advantage: the ability to confirm trust in the very foundation of their technology environments and protect the critical systems that serve their communities.
About Invary - Available on the CIS Marketplace
Invary provides continuous runtime integrity validation for Windows and Linux systems, detecting unauthorized changes that traditional security tools miss. By ensuring systems remain in a known and trusted state, Invary complements existing defenses, strengthens security posture, and helps organizations protect what matters most.
