Cyber Magazine January 2024 | Page 129

620,000 population

28th largest city in the US

2nd largest city in Tennessee

64 % black or African-American

US $ 44,000 median household income

34 median age

83 % of Memphians have internet access

77,000 lights being switched to LEDs in the city prevention , they see the importance of this project , and it has been amazing ,” Boateng says .

Mitigating against growing cybersecurity risk As cities up and down the country transition to smarter and more connected technologies , like Memphis is doing , the cybersecurity challenges grow . The risk of getting something is wrong is arguably bigger now than it has ever been . There is , of course , a due diligence process involved in onboarding any new technology partner or supplier . “ We want to make sure they ’ re doing all the right things before we bring them into our internal cyber management ,” Boateng tells us . Typically , this process will take 8-10 weeks just to conduct due diligence and check out the supplier .
“ There have been times where we decided not to go with companies because they were not mature enough , and we didn ’ t want to take on the risk of bringing in solutions that would affect
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