Sunapee moves town emails to .GOV domain for security, trust

Sunapee’s move to .GOV email addresses gives Sullivan County residents a sharper way to spot a fake. The town said its staff switched to the new government domain in October 2025, and on April 14 it reminded residents to update their address books and treat older town contact information with caution.

The change is not cosmetic. Sunapee said the goal is to protect the community from online scams, misinformation and spoofed emails, the kind of look-alike messages that can trick people into trusting a false request. In a small town, that matters because one compromised account can touch resident questions, operational business, financial systems and even election-related information.

The town’s website now reflects the change in active use. Town manager Shannon Martinez is listed with a .GOV email address, and the town clerk/tax collector page also shows staff contact information using the new town domain. Sunapee’s website also funnels residents toward online payments, public meetings, alerts and appointment scheduling, which makes secure email especially important when people are dealing with town business online.

Town documents say the transition was part of a multi-phase effort funded through a cybersecurity grant from the State of New Hampshire Department of Information Technology and The Overwatch Foundation. The town tied the project to a broader push to strengthen cybersecurity, not simply to refresh the website or modernize the look of its messages.

For residents, the quick check is straightforward. Official town email should now come from the town’s .GOV system, and any message claiming to be from Sunapee but using older or unfamiliar contact information should raise immediate concern. Do not rely on a suspicious sender name alone. Verify the address through the town’s current staff pages before replying, clicking links or sending personal information.

That caution fits the wider state effort behind the switch. New Hampshire’s Department of Information Technology says its cybersecurity grant services are designed to help cities, towns and school districts improve cybersecurity, and its mission includes building the cyber resiliency of New Hampshire municipalities and public schools. For Sunapee, the result is a cleaner line between official town business and the kind of fraudulent email that can spread quickly if residents are not watching for the new address format.