The City of Kenosha, Wisconsin, is a forward-thinking municipality that faced significant cybersecurity challenges due to its reliance on traditional VPN environments for remote access and vendor management. With increasing vulnerabilities and limited network visibility, the city recognized the need for a stronger, more resilient approach that wouldn’t disrupt its crucial municipal operations.

Agilicus, a leader in Zero Trust cyber security, was brought in to present a solution. After implementing their platform, Agilicus AnyX, the City of Kenosha was able to seamlessly transition to a Zero Trust environment, adhering to the best practices outlined in the EPA 2023 cyber security memorandum.

The city achieved several key outcomes in the process, including enforcing robust multi-factor authentication for legacy systems and unmanaged users, enabling secure and granular vendor access, gaining a full audit trail for accountability, and heightening network visibility. With Agilicus AnyX, the city significantly improved its cybersecurity posture, ensured secure remote access, and successfully protected its critical infrastructure.

The City of Kenosha’s journey with Agilicus illustrates the transformative potential of Zero Trust solutions. Their success demonstrates how municipalities can enhance their cybersecurity efforts, boost remote access capabilities, and align with EPA recommendations. 

Kenosha’s efforts underscore the importance of proactive action in securing a municipality’s future against evolving cyber threats and the remarkable benefits of transitioning to a Zero Trustenvironment.

See also Case study: “Midland Texas Transforms Water Purification Cyber Security With Agilicus AnyX“

The Cybersecurity Hurdles

The City of Kenosha wanted to proactively enhance its cyber security efforts, particularly in the context of remote access and vendor management. They relied heavily on a traditional VPN environment, which introduced vulnerabilities and exposed their network to potential cyber threats. Knowing this, the City of Kenosha was looking for a solution to transition its water and wastewater networks (particularly the Water SCADA and Water Business networks) to a Zero Trust environment to protect its critical infrastructure and the growing community it served. Doing so would also allow them to align with new best practices, notably the recent EPA cyber security memorandum.

This was a challenge, however, as the municipality depended on its existing VPN environment to maintain operations, and the network was accessed daily by a diverse workforce of internal and external users. But its existing VPN didn’t support multi-factor authentication, leaving the city vulnerable to the increased risk of unauthorized access to its water systems and other critical infrastructure.

At the same time, the city also needed its third-party vendors to continue to be able to access critical systems to maintain service delivery. In their efforts to do so, the City of Kenosha had allowed vendors to connect to their network through VPNs. While this provided remote access, it also created a security risk. Vendors with VPN access had broad network privileges, which could potentially lead to lateral traversal within the network. This meant that if a vendor’s credentials were compromised, an attacker could move laterally across the network, accessing sensitive resources and causing significant damage. Access controls were also needed as these vendors often needed access to legacy technology through Secure Socket Shell (SSH) or web applications hosted internally. How the City of Kenosha Transitioned to Zero Trust

Moreover, the City encountered challenges in managing and securing connections from unmanaged devices. Without proper controls in place, unmanaged devices connecting to the network lacked essential security measures such as up-to-date antivirus software. This posed a serious risk, as these devices could potentially introduce malware or other malicious elements to the network, compromising the security and integrity of the City’s systems.

Another key issue the City faced was a lack of visibility into its network. They had limited insights into network traffic, user activity, and potential security incidents. This lack of visibility made it difficult to identify and respond to potential threats promptly. The City needed a solution that could provide comprehensive visibility, enabling proactive threat detection and response.

Recognizing the need for a more secure and resilient approach, the City of Kenosha sought a solution that would address these vulnerabilities and provide robust remote access management. They were determined to implement a solution that would mitigate the risks associated with broad VPN access, secure connections from unmanaged devices, and enhance visibility into their network, all without any disruption to their municipal operations. How the City of Kenosha Transitioned to Zero Trust