Virtru Brings Email Security and Compliance to Pitkin County

Pitkin County is the county seat for Aspen, Colorado. More than 300 employees throughout the organization provide a variety of governmental services—from issuing marriage licenses to approving new construction—to around 18,000 citizens. Pitkin County did not use email encryption before partnering with Virtru, relying instead on native Google Workspace capabilities for email security.

Life Before Virtru

Pitkin County’s Health and Human Services (HHS) department was in dire need of an email security solution. HIPAA compliance was a major concern for HHS, as the sensitive nature of social and healthcare services meant that correspondences often contained confidential information about Pitkin families. Compliance breaches made matters even more serious—if residents’ private information were to be leaked, the Pitkin County Government could face penalties of up to $50,000 for each violation. Staying HIPAA-compliant before Virtru required the HHS team to drive around neighborhoods and pick up documents from citizens by hand. This antiquated system was expensive, slow, and frustrating—for both residents and employees.

The Result: Simple, HIPAA Compliant Google Workspace Collaboration

HHS’s critical need prompted Pitkin County’s Business Information and Technology Services Department (BITS) to consider email encryption. After conducting research and comparing various encryption providers, they decided that Virtru was the superior choice for four reasons:

• Ease of Use: With no portals, key exchanges, or new passwords, Virtru provided the smoothest experience for both senders and recipients.
• HIPAA Compliance: Virtru provided HIPAA compliance for Pitkin County’s employees.
• Google Workspace Integration: Virtru works directly within the Google Workspace interface, meaning Pitkin users could send and read encrypted emails with the flip of a switch, without ever leaving their inboxes.
• Cost: Virtru offered the most cost-effective encryption plans.

The HHS department’s experience with Virtru was such a success that Pitkin leadership began considering Virtru for other departments. Soon, the HR and attorney’s offices rolled out the tool, and Virtru is now available for use in every Pitkin department.

Seamless Implementation

According to Pitkin’s customer support manager, Nate Kneifel, introducing Virtru to employees was seamless, with his IT team receiving “zero negative feedback” after installation.

“In fact,” Kneifel says, “The only real issue we had with customers starting to use the product was that it was too easy. They thought it was so simple that there had to be more to it. But there wasn’t.”

Pitkin County’s staff members praised Virtru for the following easy-to-use
features:

• On-Demand Encryption: Senders use a toggle switch to turn Virtru encryption on only for those emails that need it.
• Easy-to-Use Security Rules: Admins can customize rules to detect sensitive information before it leaves a sender’s inbox and automatically encrypt or warn users as needed.
• Seamless Recipient Experience: Recipients can read Virtru messages without the complexity of new software, portals, or new passwords.

Trust and Security

The Virtru team offered support well beyond the installation process. From answering simple how-to questions to acting on customer feedback requests, Virtru’s responsiveness has always impressed Kneifel:

“The Virtru team was very accommodating to our requests, adding certain features for us directly, which really went above and beyond our expectations.”

More broadly, Virtru helped build trust between Pitkin County employees and the people they serve. With digital security becoming an increasing anxiety as more people and data move online, Virtru gives government workers and citizens the much-needed assurance that their email exchanges will remain safe and secure. Kneifel concluded, "Virtru has been a huge time saver, efficiency creator, and compliance booster for Pitkin County.”