Case Study: Cohoes City School District strengthens student data privacy and email encryption with Virtru

Cohoes City School District secures 150+ districts’ data with Virtru

The Cohoes City School District, facing the dual challenges of digitizing records and adapting to hybrid schooling, needed a robust data protection solution to comply with regulations like New York Ed Law 2-D, FERPA, and HIPAA. The district sought to protect a wide range of sensitive personally identifiable information (PII) for students and staff from increasing cyber threats. They turned to the vendor Virtru and implemented its easy-to-use email encryption product, Virtru for Gmail.

Virtru provided a seamless encryption solution that integrated directly into the district's existing Gmail environment, eliminating the need for separate portals or windows. This ease of use ensured widespread adoption among teachers, administrators, HR, nurses, and other staff. The results were enhanced compliance with state and federal regulations and the secure protection of student data, including health records and individualized education plans (IEPs). The district successfully safeguarded sensitive information shared both internally and externally, with Virtru becoming an essential tool for preventing data theft.

Cohoes City School District