State and local governments quite literally do it all. From health and human services, to finance and treasury, social services, law enforcement, education, and beyond, they have to do a million little things right every day to keep their communities running smoothly.
These state and local agencies are also budget-constrained. They have to maximize their limited resources in order to deliver services to the people they serve. As a result, they often rely on legacy technology and processes for as long as they can before upgrading.
The problem is that those legacy processes — physical paperwork, fax machines, 90s-era SFTP and email encryption services — often cost state and local governments more, because they are so inefficient. The staff member responsible for fax communications with health systems, and the IT director who sits on the phone to give technical support for outdated and unsupported software, are losing hours every week to these legacy processes, meanwhile delaying services to the public.
State and local governments need cost-effective, simple tools that help them work quickly and efficiently. This is why 17 state governments, plus hundreds of local and municipal government agencies, choose Virtru. Here are just a few examples of the success that Virtru is delivering for these state agencies.
The Commonwealth of Virginia is pursuing a Whole of State security posture that unifies security across state agencies, including local government offices and schools. Because the various agencies are responsible for a wide range of data, the Commonwealth wanted a solution that could support a variety of rigorous compliance requirements, including CJIS, HIPAA, and PCI. They chose Virtru for its platform-agnostic solutions, including Outlook email encryption, the automated Virtru Gateway, and Virtru Private Keystore.
In the wake of a series of Progress MOVEit breaches and zero-day vulnerabilities, the State of Utah was looking for a new secure file sharing solution. After evaluating multiple vendors, including ShareFile, Utah chose Virtru Secure Share because of its simple, intuitive user experience, paired with the ability to easily and quickly send and receive large files up to 15 GB. Virtru Secure Share doesn’t require users to install any unfamiliar software or create any new accounts, and it's quick to deploy — so Utah's government agencies could quickly transition onto the new software without interrupting its operations.
Like Virginia, Arizona is also focused on implementing an efficient, effective Whole of State approach. In a webinar with Deputy CISO Ryan Murray, our team discussed state and local cyber grants and how they can help government agencies become more resilient to escalating cyber threats. “[Cybersecurity] is something that we all have to participate in,” said Murray. “An attack against one of us in Arizona should be seen as an attack against all of us in Arizona. And that includes all of our local governments, all of our private-sector companies. We should be looking at this from a holistic, really, truly whole state approach.”
When Proofpoint Secure Share sunset in 2024, the Colorado Secretary of State department needed a replacement. While doing their research, they evaluated Kiteworks, but didn’t need the full suite of services that were required with purchase. They then discovered Virtru, which was a natural fit: With Virtru for Microsoft Outlook and Virtru Secure Share, their teams can securely exchange emails and large files without friction. Admins have also set Virtru-protected content to automatically expire after 3 months for hands-off data governance. Virtru Private Keystore also enables them to host their own encryption keys for data sovereignty and control.
During its Google Cloud migration, the State of Maryland wanted to ensure CJIS data would remain secure and controlled, according to the strict standards required for protecting CJI. “Virtru’s end-to-end email encryption and security expertise allowed us to achieve both efficiency and peace of mind by keeping control of our data," said Ken Cheney, Acting CIO of the Maryland Dept. of Education.
A Google Workspace shop, the State of Arkansas Game and Fish Commission wanted to elevate its data security to support CJIS-compliant Gmail encryption and Google Drive encrypted file sharing. For this agency, time is often of the essence: When a law enforcement investigation was underway, for example, the AGFC team needed a fast, secure, and reliable way to share emails and files with agencies conducting the investigation. Virtru fit seamlessly into the Arkansas state agency’s Google workflows for fast, easy sharing of CJI. The agency uses a combination of Virtru for Gmail (client-side encryption), Virtru Gateway (automated server-side encryption for all endpoints), and Virtru Secure Share (large file exchange for videos and other materials).
An independent agency reporting directly to the governor, the Georgia Department of Community Supervision shoulders the critical responsibility of supervising approximately 180,000 adult offenders through probation and parole services. The Virtru Gateway's runs in the background to automatically protect sensitive outbound emails and files before they leave the sender's domain, reducing the risk of human error, and its archiving capabilities support eDiscovery and compliance requirements for the state.
There's a reason so many state and local governments like these — as well as Utah, West Virginia, and many, many others — trust Virtru. Our solutions fit neatly into the most common business workflows that teams already use: Email, file sharing, and SaaS applications. Our technology combines military-grade security and granular access controls with seamless ease of use, so it's simple for government agencies to share sensitive information externally, without sacrificing data security or privacy of constituents.
If you'd like to join these agencies in deploying simple, powerful data security that powers speed and efficiency, now is the perfect time: We are running a special offer on Enterprise packages for new state and local government customers. Contact our team for a demo to see what Virtru can do for your organization.