The legalization of marijuana in Nevada has led to the growth of businesses dealing with the cultivation and production of marijuana. These businesses, such as the one managed by Harris Tec, are largely cash-based and have high-value inventory on their premises, making security a top concern. The facility is divided into two separate parts for cultivation and production, each requiring different licenses, sets of employees, and operating procedures. The challenge was to ensure tight security control over the facility, especially given the high turnover rate in the marijuana business.

NLP Logix, a company that automates repetitive tasks using AI, was facing a security challenge. During a hurricane, the CEO and several employees sheltered at their offices and became aware of potential looters around the building. However, they lacked visibility of the front door, the hallway leading to the office door, and the main entrance to the building. This lack of visibility raised concerns about their security situation and the safety of their employees. They needed a solution that would provide them with the necessary visibility to feel secure in their office building.

The E-470 Public Highway Authority, a political subdivision of the State of Colorado, operates a toll highway that runs along the eastern perimeter of the Denver metropolitan area. The 47-mile beltway extends from south of Denver, around the city, and terminates at the north end of the metropolitan area. The Authority’s extensive network of far-flung facilities and toll booths needed to be integrated into a single, centralized access control system. In late 2014, E-470 Public Highway Authority staff assessed their existing access control system with an eye toward upgrading overall capabilities.

Silktown Roofing, a full-service roofing contractor, was facing a challenge with thefts in their expansive outdoor parking and storage lot. The company has a large inventory of high-value vehicles that are stored overnight, or longer, in this lot. Despite having video surveillance technology installed, the company was unable to curtail robberies of vehicle catalytic converters. After several such thefts, the costs were rising steeply, creating a significant financial burden for the company.

Junior Achievement of South Florida’s (JASF) JA World is the largest Junior Achievement facility in the world. Each day, 450 students participate in JA BizTown and JA Finance Park simulations at JA World. Their safety and the safety of volunteers, staff, and guests is of utmost concern to JASF. The initial security system included remotely managed access control, verified audio intrusion detection, and analog cameras. However, with time it was clear JASF needed to bring more areas inside and outside the building under surveillance, they wanted more cutting-edge IP camera technology, and to have all cameras under one Video Management System.

The accounting firm had moved much of its IT to the cloud, most significantly, to Office 365’s core applications and email. However, the firm had fallen victim to a number of phishing attacks, including an aggressive ransomware attack, even with Office 365’s Advanced Threat Protection enabled. They had paid extra for Microsoft’s best security, but it was not enough. The company’s IT manager knew they needed additional layers of security beyond Office 365’s native solution.

ServiceSource, a revenue lifecycle company, migrated to the cloud and started using a variety of cloud storage resources and SaaS applications. As a public company with many compliance requirements, ServiceSource had been using best-of-breed security products to secure information in its data center. However, with its recent cloud migration, the company quickly discovered the limitations of its data center security products in protecting information in the cloud. The company needed a way to apply the same levels of security to its cloud infrastructure as it did in its data center.

The City Cybersecurity team within the Department of Technology must provide protection for 50 City and County departments subject to widely varying risks and requirements. For example, the Department of Elections must be protected from state-sponsored cyber attacks while also being transparent to public oversight. Health Care and Human Services, Finance and the Courts all fall under multiple regulatory requirements, from HIPAA to PCI to California State and Federal regulations. Needs vary widely. Some organizations have over 10,000 staff members with their own IT staff. Others may only have 50, with elected leaders that change every election cycle. Makstman partners with all to protect their data and services. Whether safeguarding water, power and transportation systems, or supporting health and human services for vulnerable populations, Makstman is tasked with protecting critical municipal services for the one million people who work and live in San Francisco.

TPA America, a national benefits administration company, was facing issues with their email security solution, Mimecast. The company had moved to Office 365 and wanted a security solution that was easy and low maintenance. However, after deployment, they started facing problems. The first issue was the number of false positives which disrupted the business. Emails would disappear until a user would ask about it the next day or spend time looking through quarantine. This led to a helpdesk ticket or an urgent call from a department head. The interface was also confusing and difficult to navigate. It was hard to find a message or understand why it was blocked. The lost time, both on the IT team and for company employees, became an expensive burden. Email-related tickets are often time-sensitive and because they can lead to a breach, potentially critical, forcing the helpdesk to grant each priority. It became necessary to add staff to manage the system.

Home Management, a property management firm in the Southwest, had been using Mimecast for years. However, the small IT department found that managing their email was taking too much time due to the complicated usage and lack of results. The product was too expensive for what they felt they were getting out of it. They were paying for Mimecast’s archiving system that they weren’t actually using. It was difficult to see what was going on in their environment. When something was blocked, they couldn’t figure out why. It was especially frustrating due to the high level of false positives, and due to the fact it was blocking a lot of legitimate emails. The system was just plain complicated. The IT department was swamped, being pulled in hundreds of different directions. But they were bogged down with email. Mimecast was “a pain” to manage, and left them having to put aside other, critical tasks.

Brodeur and Giroux, a New England-based law firm, had been using Mimecast to protect its Microsoft 365 users. However, they began to notice a pattern in the types of attacks coming through to the inbox. These Business Email Compromise attacks are of particular concern since they are incredibly effective and tough to stop. Beyond that, the firm was struggling with standard credential harvesting schemes, including fake invoices. All he was left to do was hope “that our end-users catch and don’t fall for it,” he says. For Reaves, that’s a risk he wasn’t willing to take.

The NE Association, a non-profit based in New England, was facing a significant challenge with their email security. They were using Sophos, but the solution was causing more problems than it was solving. The organization was receiving a high volume of phishing and malware attacks, and Sophos was not effectively blocking these threats. Additionally, the Sophos solution was causing confusion among staff due to its inconsistent encryption policy. The NE Association needed a new solution that was user-friendly, connected via API, and cost-effective.

Pacific Dental Service (PDS) is a leading dental support organization that provides supported autonomy to over 630 dental practices. The company's Private Practice+® model enables dentists to focus on clinical excellence and the highest levels of cost-effective comprehensive patient care. As a support services provider in the healthcare space, PDS is subject to HIPAA and other regulations. PDS’ IT team has upwards of 3,500 servers and 13,500 endpoints under their control, spanning traditional data centers, AWS, and including national and regional support centers and dental offices. Over time, the company expects to migrate additional applications to AWS. With a network of supported dental practices, the overall environment is very dynamic and the ability to maintain compliance across this diverse environment is critical. Beyond HIPAA, the ability to map the NIST CSF into HITRUST is central to PDS’ hybrid cloud security posture.

Imaging Associates of North Mississippi, a provider of radiology interpretation services, was facing challenges in transferring unique images across the WAN due to slow internet connections, network congestion, and intermittent network outages. These issues were causing delays in patient diagnoses and potential risks of HIPAA violations. The company was also using VPN lines to ensure patient data privacy, which added to the complexity of the situation.

After upgrading their Microsoft Dynamics AX system to handle more facets of their business processes, Wilson Trailer found a need to improve their data security. The role based system in Dynamics AX gave the basic user more access than was needed, not to mention more than was safe. Jay Gonzalez, Developer at Wilson Trailer, found the native GRC tools to be clunky and unworkable. When they decided to upgrade Dynamics AX, the company focus was put on business process improvement and security was continually an afterthought. In addition to the upgrade they utilized external add-on applications, which gave special access to their database. Before long the segregation of duties (SOD) risks became an apparent issue. Wilson Trailer had full trust in their staff, but the potential for accidents and misstatements was growing. They needed a solution that could review SOD risks and mitigate conflicts within AX as well as any 3rd party add-on applications. Seeing these issues T.J. Dennis, CIO at Wilson Trailer, began looking for such a solution.

Lyndon Jones Construction, a general contractor based in Salt Lake City, Utah, had been using simple spreadsheets to handle their estimating process. They had even hired programmers to develop their own software. However, the company found that this approach was not efficient, especially when it came to facilitating prequalification bids. The company needed a solution that could streamline their estimating process and make it more efficient.

Bluebird Contracting Services Ltd. and the Trotter & Morton Group of Companies were looking to transition from paper-based field data collection to a more efficient and accurate electronic system. The delay in getting information from the field about operations and safety was a significant issue with paper forms. The lag time hampered responsiveness as well as strategic decision making. The structure, integrity and even the legibility of data on paper forms were also problematic. They needed a solution that could provide real-time data from the field, enhance safety and performance, and offer immediate, event-triggered alerts and notifications.

Kitsaki Projects, a company with close to 200 employees focusing primarily on utility-based construction projects in Saskatchewan, was facing challenges in their estimating and field tracking processes. They were using independent systems for these processes, which made it difficult to understand why some jobs were unsuccessful. Economic challenges in the Canadian market were forcing contractors to focus on improving efficiency and productivity through specialized software. Kitsaki's estimators previously relied on Excel spreadsheets to produce bids, but the process was long and prone to persistent errors. The company also had a paper-based process to get better and consistent visibility into productivity, labor, and materials in the field. However, this solution was too slow and cumbersome to keep the company competitive over the long-term.