Summary: The IT Administrator for several schools in the Duchov area of Czech Republic needed real-time alerting for threats across multiple networks. Whalebone Immunity was the answer, providing immediate, network-wide DNS-level protection.
The Duchcov school district in the Czech Republic comprises a network of educational institutions in the town, including kindergartens, primary schools, and specialized or secondary schools, managed mainly by the municipality under national education laws.
The district is responsible for providing access to preschool and compulsory primary education for local children, handling admissions, ensuring inclusive and special-needs education, and maintaining communication with parents about student progress.
For faculty and staff, it oversees hiring, working conditions, professional development, and the overall safety and well-being of both students and employees. While the Ministry of Education sets national curricula and teacher qualifications, the municipal authorities manage school facilities, operational funding, and local administration, allowing schools to respond to the community’s specific needs while adhering to national standards.
Jan Krejci is the IT Administrator for schools in Duchcov area. He has deployed Whalebone Immunity to all his networks and uses it in cybersecurity classes he teaches at university.
Securing a school network like Duchcov’s against cyber threats presents several significant challenges. First, schools inherently have a large and diverse user base, including students, teachers, administrative staff, and sometimes parents accessing networks remotely. Each user represents a potential entry point for malware, phishing attacks, or accidental exposure of sensitive data.
Many educational institutions also operate on limited budgets, which can restrict investment in advanced cybersecurity tools, professional IT staff, and ongoing training for staff and students. Additionally, schools often rely on a mix of personal and school-provided devices, creating inconsistent security postures across the network. Outdated software, unsecured Wi-Fi networks, and the need to provide broad internet access for learning purposes further increase vulnerability.
Another critical challenge is the protection of sensitive information, including student records, grades, health information, and staff payroll data. A breach could lead not only to data loss or theft but also to regulatory noncompliance under European data protection laws such as GDPR, which carries both legal and reputational risks. Cyber threats targeting educational networks are increasingly sophisticated, ranging from ransomware attacks that lock critical systems to DNS-based attacks that redirect users to malicious sites.
To address the cyber‑security challenges in the school network, the district deployed Whalebone Immunity's protective DNS‑security layer that safeguards all connected devices (computers, phones, IoT, etc.) at the network level, without requiring agent‑software installation on each endpoint. By simply redirecting the network’s DNS traffic to the Whalebone resolver, the schools achieved comprehensive coverage in just a few hours.
“There were no problems with the product set-up and the deployment of the home-office client, everything went smoothly. Now I have the DNS traffic under control even when the employees use another network,” Krejci reported.
Administrators gained full visibility over DNS traffic: they can define custom policies, set blacklists and whitelists, and receive real-time alerts whenever a device attempts to connect to suspicious or malicious domains. This functionality is critical in an educational setting: it helps prevent phishing, ransomware, command‑and‑control communications, content misuse, and other advanced threats — even those that traditional firewalls or endpoint protections might miss because they rely on DNS at some stage of their lifecycle.
Moreover, because Whalebone’s solution supports remote protection, staff and educators working from home or other locations remain covered. This means the district’s security posture extends beyond the physical school premises, safeguarding sensitive data and credentials wherever devices connect.
The deployment of Whalebone Immunity delivered immediate, tangible improvements in security and administrative control. As noted by the district’s IT administrator, the real‑time alerting mechanism enabled quick identification of problematic devices the moment they attempted suspicious connections – significantly shortening response times and reducing risk exposure.
Krejci added, “Immunity gives me control over the DNS traffic in the whole organisation and allows me to create group blacklists, which I consider essential. Whitelists are the cherry on the top which allow me to fine-tune the whole system.”
Because the solution works at the DNS level for all devices – staff, students, and IoT alike – the network’s “blind spots” were eliminated. This means that previously undetectable threats (e.g. malware using DNS tunneling, phishing or command‑and‑control communication) are now blocked before any damage can be done, and administrators gain full visibility of DNS traffic, including device‑level IP attribution.
The implementation was smooth and low-maintenance: there were no disruptions, no special requirements for endpoint configuration, and no major workload increase for the IT team — a crucial advantage for school IT administrators often juggling many tasks.
Overall, the result was a safer, more controlled network environment – with reduced risk of data breaches, malware outbreaks, or misuse – while preserving usability for students and staff and avoiding administrative overhead.
“What I appreciate the most is real-time e-mail alerting. Thanks to it I can immediately identify the device which is causing the problem,” said Krejci.