It's National Cybersecurity Awareness Month!

It’s the last day of October, and you all know what that means… it’s Halloween! And in addition to Halloween, it’s also the conclusion of National Cybersecurity Awareness Month. Coincidence? We think not, because losing your data is one of the scariest things that can happen after all, right? 

If you haven’t heard of it before, National Cyber Security Awareness Month was created by Homeland Security, and this year officially marks its 13th anniversary! With all the recent legislation and White House support, cybersecurity has become an increasingly relevant topic, especially considering IoT devices and how easy it’s gotten for hackers to cause disruption. The month aims to encourage companies and individuals to become more aware of cyberthreats and to ensure that every American has the knowledge they need to stay safe online.

Every year, Homeland Security picks a few of the most important issues and makes those the points of emphasis for the entire month. Let’s take a look through the NCSAM objectives for 2016:

Week 1: Personal Cybersecurity and Steps Toward Everyday Safety:

With everything you can do in today’s interconnected world, like use your phone to shop, bank, or even track your health, cybersecurity is becoming more and more critical to everyday life. To protect themselves, people need to learn simple steps like how to manage the security of their mobile devices and to teach their children to use the internet responsibly. An easy solution for personal security is to always keep security updates current and require two-step authentication for all of your accounts.

Week 2: Cybersecurity from the Breakroom to the Boardroom:

Businesses and organizations of all sizes also experience data breaches and cybercrime, and they are increasingly popular targets. The best way to defend against this is creating a culture of cybersecurity in the office. There are several ways to do this, including employee training, awareness education, and creating processes for risk management and business resiliency. Because we’re all a part of protecting data in the workplace, it’s important that your organization’s cybersecurity posture creates a shared sense of awareness. And yes, that means everyone needs to participate!  

Week 3: Recognizing and Combatting Cybercrime:

As technology continues to evolve, the cost and impact of cybercrimes continue to increase. And today, the best way to prevent cybercrime is early detection. Oftentimes the companies that experience data breaches could have prevented catastrophic loss if only they had been able to detect the breach earlier. And if you want to be able to detect cybercrime sooner, you’ll need to learn how to read the signs of criminal intent through technology.

Week 4: What’s your App-titiude?

We’re all connected today more than ever: with connected technology in phones, appliances and cars, it’s more important than ever that people are aware of how they can keep those devices secure. But how can you protect your privacy when so many things are connected to you? The best tips are to always use strong passwords, keep your software up to date, be familiar with your apps and their permissions, and avoid public networks when inputting any personal information (like when you’re shopping).

Week 5: Building Resistance in Critical Infrastructure:

After going through the basics, the last week is all about the resiliency of your systems. The resiliency of critical infrastructure is vital to our national security, economy, and safety. This initiative goes into detail about how we can sustain the nation’s critical infrastructure and conveniently leads into November, otherwise known as Critical Infrastructure Security and Resilience Month (CISR)!

While the month may be at its end, there’s never a bad time to take these initiatives seriously so your organization is prepared to repel the scariest of attacks. A lot of these tips may seem simple, but more often than not it’s the easy, little things that make the biggest difference.

To read more about updates from NCSAM or for more information you can head to their Stop. Think. Connect. website!