Case Study: Monroe County, Georgia prevents ransomware and simplifies security operations with Palo Alto Networks

Monroe County, Georgia, stops ransomware at the door with unified enterprise-to-cloud cybersecurity and simplified security operations

Monroe County, Georgia, a county government responsible for critical public services, faced rising ransomware and phishing threats that its aging firewalls and antivirus tools could not reliably stop. The IT team needed better visibility and granular control across on‑premises networks, endpoints, remote users, and SaaS applications—especially as the county adopted Microsoft 365—to prevent breaches that could disrupt services or expose citizen data.

The county deployed a unified Palo Alto Networks platform—Strata (next‑gen firewalls), Cortex XDR, and Prisma (Access and SaaS)—to extend consistent, intelligence‑driven prevention, detection, and response from enterprise to cloud. The result: automated blocking of known and zero‑day threats, granular user‑and‑app access controls, faster incident detection and response, and a single pane of glass that enabled one IT specialist to secure the county’s entire infrastructure and keep ransomware out.

Monroe County, Georgia

Andra Howard

IT Specialist