Secure AI Adoption for Election Systems and Software
"Security is at the heart of everything that we do at ES&S."
Brad Toland
Director of IT
Election Systems & Software (ES&S) is the largest voting system supplier in the United States, where security sits at the heart of everything the company does. For Brad Toland, Director of IT, choosing a security partner meant finding one that could match that standard — and Varonis quickly stood out as the clear choice.
CHALLENGE
Preparing a Security-First Environment for the Age of AI
As ES&S began exploring AI adoption, the team faced a familiar industry timeline: most companies report it takes about a year to complete the data cleanup, classification, and environment readiness needed before rolling out AI tools safely. Toland was concerned that timeline would slow ES&S down at a moment when getting it right, and getting it right quickly, both mattered.
SOLUTION
From File System Protection to a Foundation Built for AI
ES&S saw value with Varonis from day one, starting with protection for internal file systems before expanding into advanced monitoring and alerting for greater visibility across the environment. The implementation went smoothly, growing from core products like file system and Active Directory group protection into development environments and Office 365.
We saw value early on, and then since then we've added additional features and functionality around development environments, Office 365, Active Directory group protection, things of that nature.
When ES&S began its own AI journey, conversations with Varonis revealed that the tools already in place were prepared to support that transition — no separate AI-readiness project required.
RESULTS
AI Readiness in Weeks, Not Years
Rather than the year-long data cleanup Toland expected, Varonis helped ES&S get its data identified, classified, tagged for sensitive information, and covered by data loss policies — all in a matter of weeks.
That time to get AI and Copilot rolled out was weeks as opposed to years. We were able to get our data identified, get it classified, get it tagged, get sensitive information tagged, get data loss policies put in place, all in a matter of weeks with the help of Varonis.
With Varonis' MDDR platform also part of the plan, ES&S can move forward with AI adoption — kept entirely separate from any voting technology — with confidence that its data is protected throughout.
