Tech Time Warp: Cybersecurity Awareness Month turns 18

Cybersecurity is finally of age—as an awareness month, anyway. Oct. 1 marks the start of the 18^th annual Cybersecurity Awareness Month organized by the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) and the National Cybersecurity Alliance (NCA).

This year’s theme is “See Yourself in Cyber,” focusing on the role of people in ensuring cybersecurity. After all, technology only goes so far if you aren’t taking basic steps such as using strong passwords and installing security updates. Each of the next four weeks, CISA and NCA will shine the spotlight on a different cybersecurity strategy:

• Enabling multi-factor authentication (MFA)
• Using strong passwords
• Recognizing and reporting phishing
• Updating your software

Organizations interested in becoming an official Cybersecurity Awareness Month partner may request a toolkit with talking points, sample social media posts and more by emailing CyberAwareness@CISA.DHS.gov.

Prior to the month’s kickoff, CISA and NCA released some eyebrow-raising stats on cybersecurity drawn from a survey of 3,000 computer users in the U.S., U.K. and Canada:

• More than one-third do not always create unique passwords or create unique passwords a majority of the time.
• MFA was an unknown term for 43%.
• Almost three out of four do not rely on automatic software updates.
• Only 43% back up data “always” or “very often.”

With stats like these, you may be wondering how to get through to your company’s users. Perhaps you need the services of SocialProof Security, which turns concepts such as password security and MFA into a TikTok-worthy music videos.

Did you enjoy this installation of SmarterMSP’s Tech Time Warp? Check out others here.

Photo: Maria Marganingsih / Shutterstock