Gila County IT staff outline cybersecurity, countywide support and new cloud phone rollout

GILA COUNTY, Ariz. — Gila County’s information technology staff gave supervisors a broad update Tuesday on daily technical support, cybersecurity practices, staffing and a phased rollout of a cloud-based phone system that staff said will improve reliability and provide call analytics.

Cassandra (Cassie) led the presentation with an overview of the IT department’s responsibilities, which she said include network management, system administration, cybersecurity, and technical support for county departments, the courts and libraries across Gila County communities including Payson, Globe and Miami.

Cassie described monthly patching and an incident response plan that identifies contacts and steps in the event of a security incident. She emphasized employee training, described planned “lunch and learn” sessions on phishing and said user accounts are typically retained 90 days after employee separation unless departments request longer retention. “I don’t care if you call me a hundred times a day. I would rather you call me a hundred times a day than you accidentally click on a link,” Cassie said.

Carrie and Cassie discussed the county’s network defenses — firewalls and VPNs — and said they run regular audits and vulnerability assessments. Carrie said the county has reduced audit findings and that outside reviewers have cited the county’s IT program positively.

The presentation moved to a planned replacement of the county phone system with a cloud-based platform. IT said the new system will remove a single point of failure at the courthouse main data center, allow desk-phone apps to ring on mobile devices and laptops, and provide analytics and optional call recording for specific call queues. Carrie showed a usage report from a partial test rollout showing 632 total calls in one day across three departments, including 369 inbound calls.

Staff said three departments (Payson Justice Court, Health and Emergency Services, and Public Fiduciary) are already on the new platform; the phased rollout will continue with department-by-department training and hardware deployment in the coming weeks. Carrie said the system requires two‑factor authentication for administrative access and that security audits will be run by both the county and the phone vendor.

Supervisors praised the IT team’s responsiveness and said they support training and resource allocation. Manager Menlove and several supervisors highlighted a prior security incident and credited IT’s improvements; one supervisor noted audit findings have been reduced from a larger number to two outstanding issues cited by the Auditor General. IT staff also introduced an on-call rotation for after‑hours support and said one on-call technician is available on a rotating schedule.

No formal board action was taken; staff said the rollout will continue and supervisors requested ongoing updates and training for departments.