With a more than 30 percent population increase over five years, from under 30,000 in 2020 to around 40,000 today, accelerated growth isn’t just transforming the city’s economic outlook — it’s reshaping the digital landscape. To keep pace, the city’s IT team has modified its approach to data security, redefining emerging technologies not as obstacles, but as powerful security assets, particularly in the realm of artificial intelligence (AI).
One of the most impactful cybersecurity enhancements in Seguin has been its implementation of Mimecast CyberGraph, an AI-driven tool that blocks malicious email banners and prevents tracker-based intrusions.
Last year, the system scanned 1.2 million emails, deploying 9,000 critical alerts and 26 high-risk banners to protect over 500 end users at the city, according to Shane McDaniel, Seguin chief information officer (CIO). It also blocked 6.7 million trackers embedded in incoming emails, significantly reducing hacking attempts. Nearly one-quarter of all emails the city receives daily — roughly 24.8 percent, McDaniel said, had some security issue. And one particular risk seems to outweigh the rest, he said.
“We’ve seen 462 direct impersonation attempts targeting employees, most of which were aimed at diverting their direct deposits,” McDaniel said.
The system also detected 215 malware threats, while monitoring 56,855 email URL clicks. It blocked 95 hazardous links to phishing schemes, and sandboxed 168,722 compromised attachments, the CIO said, preventing malicious files from breaking into city systems.
This is simply a reality in local government, McDaniel said. Agencies must assume malicious actors are trying to get in and implement technology that can stop them before they cause harm.
The city will soon be utilizing Cohesity to safeguard against ransomware and data loss. The platform enables advanced data backups internally and externally, and will be integrated with Nutanix, Seguin’s incoming on-premise data processing system, housed in city data centers. Both, the CIO said, will be implemented over the next eight weeks.
“What Cohesity does is take your data backups — think servers, files and databases — and allows you to store them securely onsite or offsite,” he explained. “If a ransomware attack hits, you can shut everything down and restore from a clean backup in minutes.”
After the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency identified vulnerabilities in Seguin’s older backup system, the city’s IT department knew rapid changes had to be completed. Cohesity’s technology, McDaniel said, very much checks that box for its next audit.
Seguin used funding from the State and Local Cybersecurity Grant Program to bring the project to life, securing two separate cybersecurity grants from it, including $70,000 for Cohesity’s implementation.
“A lot of local governments don’t have the funding or the resources,” McDaniel said. “So, while we have to pick and choose our battles carefully as far as our budgeting goes, we're very fortunate here in the city of Seguin to have a healthy budget and a heavy industry, so we have access to funding that allows us to implement these necessary solutions.”
