Women’s Center and Shelter of Greater Pittsburgh Ensures Secure Remote Access for its Employees

• Cybersecurity & Privacy - Identity & Authentication Management
• Cybersecurity & Privacy - Network Security

• Business Operation

• Cybersecurity Services
• System Integration

As a safe haven for abused women, the Women’s Center and Shelter for Greater Pittsburgh has extremely sensitive data in its system that is vital to the safety of its clients. Without a secure network, the shelter would lose its clients’ trust– and potentially endanger their lives. Such a loss of trust would make the shelter incapable of fulfilling its mission, “to end intimate partner violence in the lives of women and their children.” After a hacker broke into the shelter’s network, IT Manager Mark Ritter was familiar with the consequences of such an intrusion and began looking for a better security solution. Luckily, sensitive information had not been leaked, but if that were to happen in the future it could threaten the credibility of the shelter. As a nonprofit with a limited budget and staff, finding a cost-effective and easy-to-manage solution was the most important part of Ritter’s search. Ritter had been previously setting up a Cisco solution; however, the configuration and maintenance had become too tedious a process for a single IT manager.

Founded in 1974 by Ellen Berliner and Anne Steytler, Women's Center & Shelter of Greater Pittsburgh (WC&S) was one of the first six shelters for battered women in the United States. Since its inception, WC&S has been at the forefront of the Battered Women's Movement, creating and implementing innovative and effective programming aimed at preventing domestic violence and providing services to domestic violence victims. The Women’s Center & Shelter for Greater Pittsburgh currently has between 50 and 80 employees, including Mark Ritter, their IT Manager.

The Barracuda SSL VPN 380 was chosen as the solution for the Women’s Center and Shelter for Greater Pittsburgh. The Barracuda SSL VPN 380 is both affordable and easy to use. Ritter found that the Barracuda SSL VPN 380 is not only affordable upfront, but has no surprise costs down the line. For example, if everyone had to work from home on a particular day, there are no per-user fees or spike fees. The easy-to-use interface allows employees to modify their passwords and gives Ritter control over what part of the network they can access. With only Ritter in the IT department, this capability reduces the amount of time spent on monitoring remote access. With Barracuda’s advanced feature set, Ritter ensured perpetrators would not be able to hack into and bog down the network by creating NAC Rules for all remote access users. Therefore, even with an employee’s or administrator’s password, a hacker cannot be granted access into the company network.

• The Barracuda SSL VPN 380 offers easy configuration, which is crucial for a small IT team.
• Responsive support from Barracuda ensures that any issues are quickly addressed, maintaining business continuity.
• The solution provides a secure network environment, which is vital for protecting sensitive client data.

• No per-user fees or spike fees, making it cost-effective for remote work scenarios.