How a SaaS EdTech Platform Simplified Security with Blacklock

The Client

A leading education SaaS platform helps both students and educational institutions optimise the learning process. The digital education service provides support to learners throughout their academic journey, from school to the workforce. At the same time, it equips learning centres with essential tools to connect and mentor their students.

Founded in 2014 by New Zealand-based educators and tech entrepreneurs, the platform was built on a static single-page application architecture served by APIs and hosted on AWS. It offers tools for learners to set goals, plan for future pathways, and promote their well-being. This approach encourages a holistic and personalised learning experience.

The online education platform is now utilised in over 100 schools in New Zealand and Australia.

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The Challenge‍

The platform enables dynamic interactions between learners and educators, involving both student data and administrative functionality. As more schools onboarded, the platform had to cope with an influx of student data that arrived rapidly. The organisation required a scalable, efficient, and developer-friendly approach to security testing — one that could quickly and effectively assess vulnerabilities.

Traditional penetration testing models were too rigid and slow for their needs. This compelled the company to seek a partner who could deliver continuous, actionable insights without placing a heavy burden on their internal development team.

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The Solution

To address these challenges, the organisation partnered with Blacklock, a CREST-certified and trusted provider of Penetration Testing as a Service (PTaaS). Blacklock’s flexible platform combines automation with expert-led manual testing, offering continuous vulnerability scanning tailored to their unique virtual space.

Blacklock assessed both the learner-facing experience and the administrative portal across multiple access levels. Blacklock’s services empowered the digital platform to initiate penetration tests on demand and then review the results with ease. They were able to prioritise remediation efficiently without disrupting ongoing development cycles.

One key stakeholder highlighted:

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“The fast communication and flexibility of the pen testing team really stood out. The team was responsive and easy to work with throughout the process.”

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Key Results

With Blacklock’s support, the education SaaS provider achieved significant improvements in the efficiency and impact of its security testing processes:

Faster turnaround on penetration tests, enabling quicker fixes and frequent reviews.
Clearer, developer-friendly reporting and delegation to developers for remediation of vulnerabilities.
Seamless integration to DevOps pipeline without disrupting delivery timelines.
Greater value compared to traditional penetration testing engagements.

While some automated test results occasionally required clarification, the organisation remained highly satisfied with the service quality. They plan to continue working with Blacklock for future security initiatives.

“Great experience overall. The service delivery quality was top-notch, and we would recommend Blacklock to others.”

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Client Testimonials

“Blacklock’s flexibility fits perfectly into our agile development approach. Security is now part of our everyday workflow, not a one-off event.”
— Chief Technology Officer (CTO)

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