The company
Located in southwestern Ontario, the Town of St. Marys is a municipality of just over 7,000 residents, known for its strong sense of community and progressive community services.
Governed by a small but resourceful team, the town’s Department of Corporate Services oversees a diverse portfolio—including finance, communications, tourism, and information technology. As part of its commitment to modernization and public trust, the Town had been steadily upgrading its digital infrastructure and enhancing its cybersecurity practices.
That journey took a pivotal turn when a ransomware incident struck—becoming the catalyst that accelerated transformation and led to a strategic partnership with Field Effect to strengthen its security posture.
The challenge
With cyberattacks on municipalities becoming increasingly common, the Town of St. Marys had already begun modernizing its IT and cybersecurity operations. This included restructuring its team, migrating systems to the cloud, and implementing security best practices.
But as a small municipality, they advanced at a measured pace, carefully balancing progress with available resources.
"We were taking the right steps but doing so gradually—being mindful of both our budget and the capacity of our small team. At the time, we genuinely didn’t think we were a likely target, so there wasn’t the urgency to accelerate the process," said André Morin, Director of Corporate Services, Town of St Marys.
That perception dramatically changed when a ransomware attack was detected during a routine system backup. Thanks to a fast response and early progress on cloud migration, the town was able to avoid disruption to their services; however, sensitive data had been exfiltrate and a ransomware issued.
The recovery process required weeks of coordination with legal counsel, government agencies, and third-party consultants. It took four months and cost $1.3 million to fully restore operations, highlighting the need to make cybersecurity a top organizational priority.
With limited resources, they were looking for more than just 24/7 monitoring and expert support—they were looking for a Canadian solution that provided data autonomy and delivered strong value within a constrained municipal budget.
“As a small municipality, we still had to balance cybersecurity with other priorities. Focusing all our budget and resources on monitoring wasn’t sustainable—we needed a solution that delivered real value and still let us focus on improving in other areas of our IT,” said Morin.
The solution
The Town of St. Marys needed a trusted partner to help accelerate its cybersecurity maturity and reduce the risk of future attacks. Familiar with Field Effect’s strong reputation, the Town of St. Marys saw Field Effect MDR Complete as the clear choice.
The solution delivered enterprise-grade protection that uniquely combined best-in-class technology and expert-support—offering unmatched value compared to other providers. With the flexibility to store sensitive security data on-premises, the town gained everything it needed to reduce risk without overextending its limited resources.
Field Effect’s proprietary AROs (Actions, Recommendations, and Observations) provided the town’s small IT team with clear, actionable guidance—eliminating noise and enabling them to respond confidently with the resources they already had.
“When I get an ARO from Field Effect, I know it’s not noise. It means something needs attention, or something’s already gone sideways. There’s no guesswork,” said Brad Hynes, IT Manager, Town of St Marys.
In addition, Field Effect brought decades of cybersecurity expertise and professional services to help the Town of St. Marys mature its broader strategy. This support enabled the town to define a clear, long-term roadmap for resilience through stronger policies, processes, and governance, all aligned to industry best practices.
The results
Since partnering with Field Effect, the Town of St. Marys has accelerated their cybersecurity resilience—allowing the team to focus on continuous advancement of their broader strategy without overextending their limited resources.
“We’re in a much better position today than we were when the attack happened—and we’ll be in an even better spot next year. It’s a continuous improvement,” said Hynes.
Field Effect has extensively expanded the capacity of the town’s IT department. “Being a team of two, it’s impossible to have eyes on glass 24/7. But now we do,” said Hynes. “With Field Effect MDR, it feels like I’m running a much larger IT team than I actually have. And when we need support, Field Effect responds.”
At the same time, Field Effect’s professional reporting has helped communicate progress clearly to leadership—building transparency and elevating cybersecurity to a shared responsibility. “The reports are professional and easy to understand,” said Morin. “They help leadership stay informed and maintain the importance of cybersecurity across the organization.”
With Field Effect as a trusted partner, the Town of St. Marys is confident not just in its ability to reduce risk—but to respond quickly and recover effectively if a future incident occurs. Most importantly, they’ve gained the tools, support, and peace of mind to stay focused on what matters most: serving their community with confidence.
“In retrospect, the attack feels like a blessing,” said Morin. “We were able to contain it early, and it pushed us to accelerate our transformation—to secure the municipality and better prepare for future threats.”
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