THE CHALLENGE
A large county government serving over 8,000 employees across 25 departments faced a critical security challenge: decentralized IT infrastructure and inconsistent cybersecurity practices across departments created significant vulnerabilities and compliance risks.
Each department operated independently with its own IT systems, security tools, and policies. This fragmentation resulted in duplicate spending on security tools, inconsistent incident response capabilities, and gaps in cybersecurity coverage that exposed the county to potential breaches and regulatory penalties.
The county needed to establish centralized cybersecurity governance while respecting departmental autonomy and operational requirements—a delicate balance between standardization and flexibility.
OUR APPROACH
We designed a federated governance model that balanced centralized oversight with departmental flexibility. The approach established county-wide standards while empowering departments to implement security measures appropriate to their unique operational requirements.
Our team created the County Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) role to provide strategic oversight, designated security liaisons within each department to ensure local accountability, and established a County Cybersecurity Council for cross-department collaboration and knowledge sharing.
We developed a shared services model for security tools and services, consolidating duplicate spending while maintaining departmental autonomy in implementation decisions.
- •County CISO for strategic oversight
- •Departmental security liaisons
- •County Cybersecurity Council
- •County-wide cybersecurity standards
- •Flexible implementation guidelines
- •Compliance mapping to state requirements
- •Consolidated security tool procurement
- •Centralized threat intelligence
- •County-wide security training program
- •Cross-department coordination protocols
- •Unified incident reporting system
- •Shared threat response playbooks
THE OUTCOME
The federated governance model transformed the county's cybersecurity posture while maintaining departmental operational flexibility. The county achieved consistent cybersecurity practices across all 25 departments, establishing a unified security baseline without sacrificing departmental autonomy.
Through security tool consolidation and shared services, the county reduced duplicate spending by approximately $400,000 annually—savings that were reinvested in enhanced security capabilities and training programs.
The unified incident response framework dramatically improved coordination across departments, enabling faster threat detection and response. The county successfully passed a comprehensive state cybersecurity audit, demonstrating compliance with all regulatory requirements.