Arctic Wolf® Supports City of Monroe as Extension of Their Internal Team

The City of Monroe is the economic hub of northeast Louisiana and seat of Ouachita Parish. The city is comprised of many departments and divisions that provide its nearly 50,000 residents with services that range from emergency response services to public works and more. The city is also home to both a National Guard unit and a regional airport. Seated in northeast Louisiana, the City of Monroe oversees a variety of departments and services with a staff of over 1,000 employees. While the city operations may be large, the IT department only has eight employees. They are also in the cross hairs of threat actors. Schools near Monroe found themselves attacked by ransomware, and phishing is a consistent threat finding its way into the city employees’ email accounts. According to the Verizon Data Breach Investigations Report, social engineering is the top attack vector for local governments, and the public sector was the second most-attacked sector. In Louisiana, the National Guard was called in prior to the 2020 election due to a series of attacks on local governments across the state.

Seated in northeast Louisiana, the City of Monroe oversees a variety of departments and services with a staff of over 1,000 employees. While the city operations may be large, the IT department only has eight employees. They are also in the cross hairs of threat actors. Schools near Monroe found themselves attacked by ransomware, and phishing is a consistent threat finding its way into the city employees’ email accounts. According to the Verizon Data Breach Investigations Report, social engineering is the top attack vector for local governments, and the public sector was the second most-attacked sector. In Louisiana, the National Guard was called in prior to the 2020 election due to a series of attacks on local governments across the state. Those threats have the IT staff on high alert, and since they are managing multiple solutions, alert fatigue, which could lead to the small team missing a major threat, is also on their minds. While the city prides themselves on a proactive approach to cybersecurity, even hosting a statewide summit, for local governments and municipalities like Monroe, budget is a major barrier when it comes to improving cybersecurity. Technology is expensive, not to mention the staff needed to onboard, maintain, and monitor those solutions. Attracting and retaining talent is difficult, and even when a town or city has the financial means to build a security operations function in-house, scaling staffing levels to achieve round-the-clock coverage remains a challenge. The City of Monroe knew that an external security option, one that could integrate with their solutions while offering expertise, was the best route to improve their security posture and thwart future threats.

As Jeshirl Brice, IT director for City of Monroe, began evaluating potential cybersecurity partners, knowing that a vendor’s ability to provide environmental visibility was an essential requirement that a vendor must meet. The visibility that the City of Monroe was looking for is paramount to how Arctic Wolf operates. Arctic Wolf takes a holistic approach, one that brings in data from different technologies, endpoints, and infrastructure, adding context and visibility across the entire environment to identify vulnerabilities and monitor for potential threats. Built on open architecture, the Arctic Wolf® Platform works with customers’ existing technologies while enriching telemetry. For the City of Monroe, this meant they wouldn’t have to worry about canceling contracts or purchasing new solutions. That understanding of Arctic Wolf’s capabilities came when Brice saw the partner in action. One time she was called by the Arctic Wolf’s dedicated Concierge Security® Team (CST) at 4 a.m. in response to an alert of a suspicious login coming from outside of the country. While thankfully it was a false alarm caused by an employee who was traveling internationally, it highlighted to her that the organization is in good hands. Arctic Wolf® Managed Detection and Response (MDR) solution provides 24x7 monitoring and detection, ensuring that immediate action can be taken on threats. While no one enjoys a 4 a.m. wake-up call, Arctic Wolf’s CST only contacts customers to escalated alerts, meaning the alert is both important and requires immediate attention. Brice has received alerts just as she’s leaving the office for the day, and emails from the CST in the hours in between. Brice said the round-the-clock monitoring prevents a “big surprise,” when she goes into the office. The MDR solution utilizes machine learning to filter through an organization’s vast database and only escalate what is most important, so the customer can spend their time on what’s most critical instead of fielding endless false alarms or missing major threats. Arctic Wolf knows that threats come at all hours from all angles. The platform combines advanced technology with the human element so organizations like City of Monroe can respond to threats before they become data breaches. Having this trust in both MDR and the CST can divert disaster.

• Cost-effective threat detection and response.
• Strategic guidance from CST that improves city’s security posture over time.
• Complete visibility across environment with proactive insights into vulnerabilities.
• Round-the-clock monitoring prevents major threats and false alarms.
• Proactive action by identifying and remediating vulnerabilities within the environment.

• The City of Monroe has a staff of over 1,000 employees.
• The IT department only has eight employees.
• The city serves nearly 50,000 residents.
• Two years into working with Arctic Wolf, the City of Monroe is confident in their decision.