Intelligent CIO North America Issue 13 | Page 62

CASE STUDY

From securing elections , to rolling out COVID-19 vaccines , to handling unemployment claims , the Oklahoma Office of Management and Enterprise Services ( OMES ) is the lifeline in place to make sure state activities go off without a hitch . State agencies rely on OMES every day for the finance , property , human resources and technology services they need to succeed .

Security Officer Matt Singleton and OMES Oklahoma Cyber Command – the security team responsible for protecting the state ’ s networks and digital assets – with strengthening Oklahoma ’ s cybersecurity posture . The solution ? A full Mimecast suite that started with email security and has grown into so much more .
Customer vision
But even the most well-oiled machines need a tune up from time to time . That ’ s why , in 2019 , State of Oklahoma leadership tasked State Chief Information

BEGINNING ON DAY ONE WITH MIMECAST , WE SAW A DRAMATIC DECREASE IN THE NUMBER OF IT TICKETS RELATED TO SPAM , MALWARE AND FRAUD .

Knowing email is the primary method of communication across state agencies and the top target of exploitation by cybercriminals , Singleton and his team began their cybersecurity initiative with a focus on email security .
“ Email is the lifeblood of our agencies , and bad actors take advantage of this fact by continuously hitting the state with phishing and spear phishing attacks , whaling campaigns and other email-based threats ,” said Singleton . “ Because of this , we knew our first priority had to be modernizing and strengthening our email security strategy .”
Customer strategy
The state was using antiquated secure email gateways , which made it hard for Oklahoma Cyber
62 INTELLIGENTCIO NORTH AMERICA www . intelligentcio . com