Case Study: Mississippi Department of Employment Security achieves secure, reliable, and low‑cost network operations with Fortinet

Fortinet Gets the Job Done Securely and Efficiently for the Mississippi Department of Employment Security

The Mississippi Department of Employment Security (MDES) is the state’s unemployment agency, running 35 WIN job centers and holding large volumes of sensitive citizen data. With a single network manager and a consortium-led software development effort managed by Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), MDES needed robust, always-on security and strict access controls to protect data, ensure uninterrupted unemployment processes, and secure cloud-based development resources.

MDES deployed the Fortinet Security Fabric—including FortiGate NGFWs in HA, FortiGuard AI threat feeds, FortiAuthenticator/FortiToken MFA, FortiManager/FortiAnalyzer, FortiWeb, and FortiClient EMS—backed by FortiCare TAM support. The result: no major security incidents in nearly a decade, no recent hardware failures, reliable VPN and MFA for remote access, centralized visibility and simplified management that allow one administrator to run the network and lower total cost of ownership.

Mississippi Department of Employment Security

Leigh Weems

Network Manager