Untangle is UTM Solution of Choice for Sheriff’s Office

Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office

Industry:  ​State & Local Government

Network Size:   35 officers, plus remote workers, utilizing up to 70 different clients on-site.

“Untangle makes it easy to catch little issues before they become full blown red alerts.”

Background

Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office is home to 35 law enforcement officers who maintain the safety and security in Jefferson County and and the Oskaloosa, Kansas area. Though the department is small, they handle big city criminal activity that spills over from neighboring counties and cities. Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office handles around 7,000 cases a year and manages the county’s jail. Tom Ryan is not only an officer of the law, he also became the IT Director for Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office in 2012.

The UTM Solution Hunt

When Tom became the IT Director for Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office, he was tasked with finding a security solution to not only protect the sensitive information the Office handles, but also to ensure the network stays safe from threats. As the Office had no solution in place, instead relying on the Oskaloosa County to provide IT services, Tom had to start from scratch.

While searching for a UTM solution, Tom ran across Untangle and was immediately drawn to the fact it is linux-based at its core. “I looked at many UTM solutions, but once I found Untangle, I knew it had everything I wanted, including a complete solution at an affordable price,” said Tom. Tom ended up purchasing the NG Firewall Complete package, which includes all of Untangle’s applications to provide advanced web filtering, antivirus and optimal network performance.

Untangle’s Line Up: Reporting and Dashboards

Since the entire Office is hard-wired (no wireless access points are allowed due to the sensitive information the Office handles), ensuring the network is not compromised is one of Tom’s main concerns. Tom utilizes the Web Filter application to monitor internet traffic and block inappropriate sites or sites that are known to support phishing, spyware and viruses. To ensure unauthorized users are not gaining access to the network, Tom uses the Firewall application to look up the IP addresses of the users logging in, as there are some remote users that need access to the system.

“Version 12 has provided so many useful tools for me to easily see what is going on in my network,” said Tom. “The widgets are so cool – I created my own and can see immediately who is logged in and top sites being blocked.” The Reporting and Dashboard functionality with Version 12 has enabled system administrators to get immediate visibility into their network traffic, allowing them to provide quick answers to superiors. “In the four-plus years we’ve used Untangle, our network has yet to be compromised,” said Tom.