Groups Recover Together Secures Patient Data and Empowers "Human Firewalls" with Virtru

The Result

• Automated and Manual Safeguards for Data-Centric Security: Deployed both Virtru for Email and the Virtru Gateway to provide automated Data Loss Prevention (DLP) catch-alls, while simultaneously empowering users to apply manual controls like watermarking and expiration dates.
• Seamless User Experience: Delivered a frictionless, "boring" deployment that operates smoothly in the background, allowing healthcare staff to send necessary communications without complex, workflow-interrupting security steps.
• Platform Flexibility and Scalability: Implemented a platform-agnostic solution that integrated seamlessly with their Google Workspace environment, offered readiness for Microsoft Azure, and easily scaled to fit the needs of the business.

Groups Recover Together is a fast-growing, mission-driven healthcare organization focused on medical excellence and patient care. Because their staff handles highly sensitive patient data day-to-day, including personally identifiable information (PII) and protected health information (PHI), maintaining strict HIPAA compliance is absolutely critical. With a small-but-mighty IT and security team wearing many hats, the organization needed a data protection solution that could secure their communications without creating friction for their counselors and regional care teams,, allowing them to focus fully on serving their patients.

The Business Need: Secure Data Sharing with External Partners

Initially, the search for an encryption solution at Groups started as a compliance request for a single team that needed to watermark and encrypt internal emails. However, as the organization grew, the requirement rapidly expanded. They needed a way to securely share information with external partners, and eventually recognized the value of rolling out comprehensive protection across the entire company.

The IT team evaluated several vendors, looking closely at solutions like Paubox and Barracuda. For Michael Taylor, Systems Administrator, the deciding factors were simplicity and deep compatibility with their existing infrastructure. "We need to make sure that the solutions that we implement are easy, and that they also will connect with our current stack," Taylor explained. "Ultimately, I said, ‘What's going to be easy to set up? What's going to plug directly into our Google browsers and Workspace, and be able to have this up and running quickly?’ I got a good feeling with Virtru."

Additionally, platform flexibility played a crucial role in the decision. At the time of evaluation, the organization was utilizing Google Workspace, but under previous leadership, there was a real possibility of shifting to a full Microsoft environment. Virtru’s ability to bridge the gap and work seamlessly across both Google Workspace and Microsoft Azure provided the IT team with the future-proof sustainability they required, regardless of where their tech stack ultimately migrated.

“Boring Is Good” for Encryption Software

The deployment of Virtru at Groups was exceptionally smooth. The IT team started by rolling out Virtru for Gmail, allowing staff to easily toggle encryption on and off. Shortly after, they implemented the Virtru Gateway to provide an automated safety net. "We started just with the email... and then moved into the Gateway pretty quickly after that because we wanted some additional protections," noted Patrick Gaughan, Systems Administrator. "We set it up and everything's been working well since then. Virtru is straightforward."

The combination of the plugin and the Gateway has created a frictionless environment for users. The IT team emphasizes that a lack of user complaints is the ultimate marker of operational success. As Brian Fanny, Head of IT and Security, put it: "I think it's been boring. Boring is good. People aren't complaining. We haven't had a lot of noise. Everyone's focused on what they do in their role, and it's on us to make sure that it's easy and seamless and isn't interrupting their workflows."

Beyond the technology itself, the Groups team has been highly impressed with Virtru’s ongoing customer support. In a fast-paced healthcare environment where vendor reliability is paramount, Virtru’s dedicated assistance with custom rules and DLP adjustments has stood out. "We have so many vendors here, and some of them, they help you out at the beginning and they don't after," said Taylor. "With Virtru, we felt well supported."

Delivering Value and Improving Business Processes

Virtru has fundamentally improved how Groups manages data security by striking the perfect balance between risk mitigation and operational efficiency. The Virtru Gateway acts as an invisible safety net, utilizing DLP rules to automatically catch sensitive information that might inadvertently slip through. Simultaneously, the Virtru plugin empowers employees to take an active, conscious role in data security. "We want to empower people to understand when they're sending things if it's something that we need to be careful with," Taylor explained. "It's just teaching them to be human firewalls, as well. The gateway has DLP rules that protect us all the time, which is fantastic... but at the same time, they feel empowered internally to make a decision."

This dual approach aligns perfectly with the organization’s broader cybersecurity philosophy. For Brian Fanny, security must serve and protect the organization's mission without becoming a hindrance. "The answer to how much security you need should always be 'just enough' — you don't want to overprescribe something and make things so difficult and challenging to use that you're interrupting the objectives of what the organization is trying to accomplish," he said. Virtru delivers exactly that: robust, HIPAA-compliant protection that doesn't sacrifice user productivity.

The value Virtru provides is evident as Groups actively expands its footprint. As the organization continues to scale, the IT team can easily standardize on Virtru for security, because it is platform-agnostic and supports a wide range of business workflows. With a clear vision for streamlined, data-centric security, Groups ensures that their growing team can deliver exceptional patient care with the confidence that sensitive data is secure.