Dealing with your own taxes can be a pain — imagine if you were responsible for managing the tax function for an entire city, county, or state. Tax season pressure takes on a whole new meaning if you work for a state or local tax department: There’s a high volume of PII and sensitive financial data that must be handled in order to collect the revenue that allows state and local government entities to operate. Finance and treasury departments, too, share this responsibility for handling constituent data responsibly and securely as they manage and analyze budgets and forecasts.
Adding to the pressure, many of these state and local government finance departments are at a crossroads. Often, they are expected to do more with less, stretching budgets thin in order to keep government services running smoothly. This leads many agencies to rely on outdated technologies and inefficient workflows in order to cut costs.
State and local treasury departments need a way to maximize efficiency and get their jobs done — while safeguarding the critical financial information of their constituents and their partner agencies. Here’s why that is so important.
By the way, we’re running a limited-time offer for new state and local government customers - get more information here.
Government Financial Departments are Prime Cyber Targets
Cyber attackers know that critical infrastructure and public services are prime targets for data theft. Public-sector organizations experience some of the highest costs associated with data breaches across all industries, because they manage vast volumes of sensitive data. For treasury departments managing billions in public funds, finance offices handling budgetary information, and tax agencies collecting personal financial details, the stakes couldn't be higher.
Treasury department cybersecurity has become a critical concern, as these agencies manage substantial financial resources and transactions. Similarly, tax form cybersecurity remains a persistent challenge, as this paperwork contains a goldmine of constituent PII. Agencies need a way to securely collect, process, and store sensitive taxpayer information.
Common challenges include:
- Exchanging sensitive financial information externally with stakeholders
- Safely collecting tax forms and financial documents from constituents
- Protecting confidential budget discussions from unauthorized access
- Ensuring compliance with regulations while maintaining efficiency
- Securing financial data in a remote work environment
Virtru for Email: A Simple Workflow to Protect Treasury Data
Email remains the primary communication channel for most government agencies, yet native TLS email security offers minimal protection for sensitive information. Virtru for Email (available for Outlook and Gmail, and as an automated Data Protection Gateway) addresses this vulnerability head-on.
When treasury departments need to communicate with financial institutions, or finance offices need to share feedback on budget forecasts with external consultants, Virtru enables them to:
- Send encrypted emails directly from their existing email platform (Gmail or Outlook)
- Control who can access sensitive information with granular permission settings
- Set expiration dates for sensitive financial communications
- Revoke access to emails even after they've been sent
- Track and audit when emails containing financial data have been accessed, and by whom
Government agencies also need to carefully track and audit these communications, and Virtru provides granular audit trails for each piece of shared data — plus a unique ability to action that data
The solution transforms how treasury departments communicate with banks and financial partners, allowing them to share sensitive financial projections confidentially without the cumbersome secure portals previously required. This streamlined approach provides heightened security while enhancing efficiency in critical financial communications.
Virtru Secure Share: Transform How You Manage Taxpayer Data
Collecting financial documents and tax forms presents significant security challenges for government agencies, who then have to juggle a wide variety of incoming PII and financial information. Traditional methods of tax form collection often create friction for constituents while still falling short on security.
Virtru Secure Share offers a better way to protect tax forms and other financial documents:
- Simplified tax form submission: Citizens can securely upload tax documents without creating accounts or navigating complex portals
- Enhanced document security: All files are encrypted, protecting sensitive financial information with granular access controls
- Streamlined workflows: Finance departments can create dedicated, secure collection points for specific document types
- Improved constituent experience: The intuitive interface reduces submission errors and support requests
Many tax departments implementing Secure Share have found that the technology not only strengthens security, but also dramatically improves operational efficiency. For some organizations still relying on legacy tech like fax machines or outdated SFTP workflows, Virtru is a game changer, allowing them to finally leave those outdated processes in the 90s where they belong.
Staff members can dedicate more time to processing actual returns instead of troubleshooting submission issues, while simultaneously maintaining the highest standards of data protection for sensitive tax information.
Why Financial Departments Choose Virtru: Security Without Sacrifice
Government financial agencies are discovering that Virtru's solutions provide robust security without the typical tradeoffs. To sum it up,
- Easy to Deploy: Virtru Integrates with existing email systems and workflows for painless deployment to your team.
- Simple UX: Minimal training is required for staff and there’s zero learning curve for constituents
- Stronger Security and Compliance: Virtru supports a range of financial compliance requirements, including PCI, GLBA, SOX, and many others
- Operational Efficiency: Virtru streamlines secure communication rather than adding obstacles
- Cost-effectiveness: Virtru is an affordable solution that can be right-sized to fit your organization’s data security needs. It also reduces expenses associated with data breaches and complex security systems, and allows you to retire inefficient technologies and processes.
Real-World Examples of Using Virtru for Government Finance
Treasury Departments
Treasury departments use Virtru to secure communications with banks, grant recipients, and other financial institutions. From bond issuances to investment strategies, these communications contain highly sensitive information that requires protection beyond standard email. Virtru's encryption ensures that only authorized individuals can access these critical discussions.
Tax Agencies
Tax collection agencies leverage Virtru Secure Share to create simplified, secure upload portals for specific tax forms and other financial paperwork. This approach not only improves tax form cybersecurity, but also increases compliance rates by making secure submission easier for constituents. Meanwhile, tax agency staff use Virtru's email encryption to securely communicate with taxpayers about sensitive matters without risk of exposing personal financial information.
Finance Departments
Finance departments handling budgets, payroll, and financial planning use Virtru to protect internal and external discussions about sensitive financial matters and to securely share reports with elected officials and other departments. Because Virtru is platform-agnostic, it can be used by anyone, regardless of their email client or technology setup — ensuring that financial data remains secure regardless of where staff are working.
Whole-of-State Security with Virtru
For state and local government financial departments, the challenge isn't just securing sensitive data—it's doing so while maintaining operational efficiency. That’s why 17 states choose Virtru to protect data, and many of those states deploy Virtru across several agencies and departments. From school systems to tax departments, Virtru’s versatile security provides solutions that enhance data protection without creating barriers to effective work.
Is your government agency looking to strengthen its approach to financial data security? Learn more about how Virtru can help protect your sensitive information while improving operational efficiency. Book a demo today to learn about the special offer we’re running for state and local government organizations.
