GO Concepts Defends Warren County DD Board From Ransomware

GO Concepts Defends Warren County DD Board From Ransomware

Leadership at the Warren County DD Board knew they needed to invest in their cybersecurity to keep ePHI protected and maintain their HIPAA compliance. That’s why they partnered with GO Concepts.

Are you confident in your DD Board’s cybersecurity?

Back in 2012, Warren County DD Board Superintendent Megan Manuel wasn’t sure her organization could defend against the growing threat of cybercrime. The Warren County DD Board serves over 1,800 individuals with developmental disabilities and employs 127 staff members. They have a complex, active organization, and deal with an immense amount of electronic Protected Health Information (ePHI), all of which needs to be secured.

Data security is a top priority for DD boards. Especially when HIPAA compliance is a factor, both employees and those supported by a DD Board’s services expect the organization to maintain the privacy of their affairs and information, no matter what.

The State Of Cybersecurity For DD Boards

Unfortunately, it has never been more difficult to defend ePHI. Cybercrime, and ransomware in particular, are more common and damaging than ever before:

According to Coveware’s Q4 Ransomware Marketplace report:

• The average ransomware payout is $84,116
• The highest ransom paid by a target organization was $780,000
• The average ransomware attack results in 16.2 days of downtime

But that’s just a statistic for general businesses — what about organizations like DD Boards? The reality is that, in the first nine months of 2019, at least 621 government entities, healthcare service providers and school districts, colleges and universities were affected by ransomware.

How Did The Warren County DD Board Address Their Cybersecurity?

While their first thought was to develop and manage an internal IT department in order to strengthen their cybersecurity, they soon concluded that it wouldn’t be feasible. Hiring, training, managing and compensating an internal IT team comes with a lot of expenses:

1. Employee Expenses: An in-house network administrator can cost a lot to have on staff. To be effective, IT service and support requires up-to-date skills and expertise.
2. Benefits, Sick Leave, Vacation Costs: There are additional expenses on top of salary to consider. For example, holidays, and the coverage while the network administrator is away. When you consider all of this, just one network administrator can cost even more than a standard salary.
3. Ongoing Training and Certifications: With cybercrime and other threats to your business, you must ensure your IT staff is trained on the latest cybersecurity tactics. In addition, software, hardware, and cloud solutions are constantly evolving. To provide the most cost-effective IT solutions, IT personnel should attend vendor training and stay up on certifications that expire. These training and certification expenses can really mount up and may involve travel expenses as well. Instead, they opted to outsource and began researching local IT companies. After evaluating a number of options, they chose to partner with GO Concepts.

How Did GO Concepts Secure The Warren County DD Board?

By partnering with GO Concepts, the Warren County DD Board was able to totally outsource their cybersecurity management to an expert team they could trust:

• Migration To The Private Cloud: The first step was to move Warren County DD Board’s systems to GO Concept’s private cloud. This eliminated the security risks posed by the Board’s vulnerable and outdated equipment and allows the GO Concepts team to directly monitor their data security going forward.
• Update And Patch Management: GO Concepts manages all updates for the Board’s systems, ensuring their IT is up to date with the latest security patches.
• Secure Remote Access: With their data in GO Concept’s private cloud, the Board’s staff can easily and securely access their work while operating remotely and in the field.
• Email & Web Filtering: Robust filtering for both their email clients and web browsers helps to protect the Board’s users against phishing scams, which would otherwise infect their systems with malware through a spoofed email or website.
• Cybersecurity Awareness Training: The Board’s staff participates in regular cybersecurity awareness training to ensure they can recognize cybercrime scams and contribute to the organization’s cybersecurity.

“I don’t lose sleep over cyber,” says Superintendent Megan Manuel. “I trust Logan (WCBDD IT Manager) and GO Concepts, that they are handling it.”

GO Concepts Will Secure Your DD Board’s Data

Don’t let cybercrime threats pose a risk to your data security and HIPAA compliance, and don’t assume you have to handle it all on your own.

You can start improving your cybersecurity in three simple steps:

1. Book a meeting with our team at a time that works for you.
2. Let us assess your cybersecurity and address any vulnerabilities.
3. Get back to focusing on your work, instead of worrying about your cybersecurity.