“When we talk about the Gramm-Leach Bliley Act and the financial repercussions of the final Safeguards Rule, we use Virtru to stay compliant and stay secure, which are not always the same thing, but in this case, Virtru is giving us a delivered solution for both. And that's a really powerful feature for us, because it's a low-cost software deployment.“
Andy Powell
Director of Information Security
Established in 1793, Williams College is a private liberal arts college in Williamstown, Massachusetts — and, like many other higher education institutions, it also functions like a small city. From scholarships to student data, to employment records and alumni gifts, Williams College is entrusted with high volumes of sensitive information, which it protects with Virtru.
With Virtru, Williams College is able to:
Williams College is the #1 ranked liberal arts college in America, with a tight-knit student and alumni community. Protecting the privacy and security of student and alumni information is a top priority for Andy Powell, Director of Information Security for Williams College. “Our class sizes are 500 per class year or more. So, if you think about it, that's 500 new records coming in every year and not necessarily 500 old records leaving when they matriculate or graduate, because those folks are an important lifeblood to our advancement operations and alumni engagement,” Powell said.
“So, when they leave Williams, they don't actually leave Williams. Physically, they may leave, but their data resides. So, we have an obligation to protect that information.”
Virtru is an essential layer of data protection for Williams College, equipping faculty and staff to securely share sensitive information both internally within the school, and externally with alumni and other third parties. “Thanks to the flexibility of Virtru's design, anybody can receive an encrypted email from Virtru's messaging platform,” said Powell.
“We don't have to have servers, we don't have to have routers, and SPF frameworks and DMARC, and so on. We just put the plugin into our Chrome browsers and send a Virtru email. So, it's a really nice SaaS offering that fits with our continuing migration to the cloud. I think our users like it because it's lightweight, it doesn't have a huge investment from our networks and systems team to host and support these things. And it just works: As long as you're following the instructions and doing the right thing, our folks in these areas that are not necessarily tech-savvy are able to send encrypted emails, effectively and securely, around the world.”
For Powell, it’s nice to have a product that is simple and that users actually like to use. “If I sent out an email and said, ‘Virtru is going to be turned off tomorrow,’ I would have a problem on my hands like almost no other on campus. It’s not something we intend to move away from.”
In 2022, Williams College launched the nation’s first all-grant financial aid program, which totally eliminated loans, as well as required campus and summer jobs, from all of its financial aid packages. The components are being replaced with equivalent grant funds, dollar for dollar — with the goal of “true affordability” for students receiving financial aid.
In addition to being a boon for students and their families, this change to the program also introduces new compliance considerations, such as the updated FTC Safeguards Rule, which requires encryption for sensitive data related to financial transactions. Thankfully, with Virtru in place, Williams is in a good position for the evolving financial compliance space.
“When we talk about the Gramm-Leach Bliley Act and the financial repercussions of the final Safeguards Rule, we use Virtru to stay compliant and stay secure, which are not always the same thing, but in this case, Virtru is giving us a delivered solution for both. And that's a really powerful feature for us, because it's a low-cost software deployment.“
Williams also has compliance considerations for things like sourcing mortgages for new faculty and staff who are relocating to Williamstown to work for the college. “Williams is also perhaps unique in that it sources and then does not service mortgages for new employees. Oftentimes, Williams will purchase a property or already have a property in Williamstown and will essentially source the mortgage for an individual to come and live in, essentially like corporate housing. The difference is the individual’s name. And then the mortgage is ultimately serviced by a third party for the monthly payments, so we shift that customer relationship away quickly.
This also raises important considerations about securely managing financial data once a transaction is complete. “There’s that initial contact as a customer where they say, ‘Here's all of my credit information. Here's all of my work history. Here's everything you need to know about me in order to know that I'm a viable candidate for this mortgage,’ and there's some concern about how we destroy that data after those mortgages are outsourced, because these people are still employees with us.”
With Virtru, Powell can maintain visibility into the status of that shared data, and admins and data owners can revoke third-party access whenever needed. This provides peace of mind and assurance of control across the full lifecycle of the data.
At the end of the day, Virtru is just one of many ways that Williams College shows respect and care for its student base and alumni network. “I'm quite thankful that we landed on this solution, and I've been happy to adopt it. My own mantra is, ‘If it ain't broke, don't fix it.’ and that's exactly what I've been handed: A system that works, with a pretty raving fan base that just likes using the product. And so, I think that from a cost benefit analysis, there's just no question that we derive more benefit than — or at least equivalent benefit to — what we pay.”
