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”I really liked the tracking and auditing Virtru offers on data that has already been shared. Google has some good DLP blocking, but I liked Virtru’s method of being able to secure, share, and track data instead of just blocking it."
John Hyland
IT Director
The Town of North Andover, Massachusetts, is a municipality that prioritizes cybersecurity to protect its constituents. Under the leadership of IT Director John Hyland, the town has invested heavily in advanced security measures, including firewalls, DDoS protection, and phone security. The IT department, consisting of five staff members, is responsible for protecting 300 town employees who use Google Workspace.
With their bases covered in terms of protecting the perimeter, Hyland observed a need for secure data sharing — and the ability for his team to monitor and audit data sharing between government agencies.
With Virtru email encryption and the Virtru Data Protection Gateway, the Town of North Andover is able to:
Prior to Virtru, the Town of North Andover relied on its staff to ensure that sensitive information did not leave the network unprotected. There were two human lines of defense: employees and town managers. Employees were trained not to share any sensitive information via email. But, when employees needed to share files externally in order to get their work done, the second line of defense kicked in — file sharing requests could be submitted to town managers. The town managers would then have to manually scan emails and files for sensitive data that shouldn't be shared.
A further challenge is that Hyland’s team didn’t have a way to track or control this data sharing. "There was no way of knowing whether staff was encrypting PII (personally identifiable information) before it was sent out,” said Hyland.
Given these challenges — and the wide range of data that local governments are responsible for managing — the Town of North Andover’s IT team needed better visibility and control over data being shared externally. That’s when they found Virtru.
When Hyland and his team discovered Virtru, they knew it would be a game-changer for productivity. They chose to implement both client-side and server-side encryption for sensitive data flowing in and out of their network, using Virtru for Gmail and the Virtru Data Protection Gateway.
While some of Google’s native cybersecurity tools were helpful, they were not robust enough to support the town’s CJIS and HIPAA compliance requirements. “Google has some good DLP blocking, but I really liked Virtru’s method of being able to secure, share, and track data instead of just blocking it,” Hyland said.
With Virtru’s DLP in place, the Town of North Andover can automatically detect and protect sensitive data before it leaves their organization. This means that, even if a user forgets to encrypt an outgoing email, it will be automatically scanned. If Virtru detects sensitive information, that email and attachment can be either blocked or automatically encrypted, without any action needed from the user or the IT team.
With Virtru, Hyland’s team can also control protected data after it travels outside the perimeter — giving admins and users the ability to revoke or change access permissions at any time. ”I really liked the tracking and auditing Virtru offers on data that has already been shared,” Hyland added.
Virtru has unblocked several bottlenecks for the Town of North Andover: Now, employees have the tools to securely share information via email — freeing up workflows. Town managers no longer have to manually review outgoing files looking for sensitive information — freeing up managers’ time. And Hyland’s team has complete visibility into encrypted data sharing — reducing organizational risk and strengthening compliance with data protection regulations.
With Virtru, the Town of North Andover now has a smart, automatic safety net that is always in place, protecting the municipality’s valuable data everywhere it travels.
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