City of Jonesboro Secures Critical Infrastructure and Boosts Cyber Resilience with Armis Centrix™

The City of Jonesboro, located in northeast Arkansas, is home to over 80,000 residents and serves as a regional hub for industry, healthcare, and education. The city government spans 23 different departments with approximately 700 employees, along with a 911 center that supports both the city and Craighead County.

The city’s IT department, led by Director of Information Systems Jason Ratliff, is responsible for maintaining the network infrastructure and cybersecurity across multiple municipal facilities, including water treatment plants, government offices, and public safety services.

In recent years, Jonesboro has faced increasing cybersecurity challenges as the number of connected devices in its IT and OT environments has grown. From municipal IoT devices, such as security cameras and traffic lights, to critical OT assets, such as water treatment control systems, the city’s attack surface has expanded rapidly. Managing these assets and securing them from cyberthreats has become a priority.

The Challenge

The City of Jonesboro struggled to maintain full visibility over its expanding network of devices. Jason Ratliff and his team were tasked with ensuring that all connected assets were properly monitored and protected, but with hundreds of unmanaged devices, this was no small feat. The lack of comprehensive asset discovery tools left gaps in the city’s security, particularly in its operational technology (OT) environment, where the critical infrastructure controlling water treatment and other public services was at risk.

“We had a huge blind spot when it came to our OT devices,” Ratliff explained. “We didn’t clearly understand what was connected to our network, which made it difficult to protect those assets.”

In addition to visibility challenges, the city’s IT department was limited in terms of resources. Manually tracking devices, identifying vulnerabilities, and ensuring security controls were up to date was both time-consuming and prone to error. Jonesboro needed a risk management solution that could automate these processes while providing real-time insights into their security posture.

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