Cybersecurity Awareness Month

The National Cybersecurity Alliance launched the National Cybersecurity Awareness Month (NCSAM) in 2004 to ensure every American stays safe online. The initial goals for this month-long focus on cybersecurity are to provide reminders and information, like updating passwords and antivirus software regularly. Today the technology and world have drastically changed with cybercriminals becoming smarter and much more dangerous.

This year’s cybersecurity awareness month starts in October 2020 in a society where it has become harder to differentiate between life offline and online. Consequently, the theme “Do your Part. Be Cyber Smart” is meant to encourage a more proactive approach to guarantee better information security. It’s about empowering organizations and to take responsibility and protect their side of cyberspace.

What You Can Do During Cybersecurity Awareness Month

While cybercrime can carry significant adverse effects, the good news is that it is possible to undertake some proactive steps and effectively defend your organization from cyber threats. If everyone successfully does their part, then the online world will only become more resilient and safer for all.

Customized Cybersecurity Program for your Organization

The best way to protect your organization against costly cyber threats is to have a comprehensive and customized cybersecurity program specifically tailored to your needs. This strategy will establish the critical security policies and processes that your business will use to protect its information. Critical areas include incident management, information security architecture, and vulnerability, alongside threat management. These aspects are some of the components that can help you map out where your information lives within your organization and what technological, physical, and administrative safeguards are protecting it.

Undertake Cybersecurity Awareness Training

Take advantage of the cybersecurity awareness month to train employees about the best practices for safe cyberspace usage. Through this awareness training, your workforce gains knowledge about your company’s information security policies and processes. Leveraging SCA’s data breach response guide supports your organization in its efforts to ensure employees know these security principles. It also helps your workforce understand why they must adhere to the security and compliance guidelines strictly.

Secure Cloud Storage Solutions

The cloud offers immense efficiency and convenience for storing data and applications as it enables remote access from any location on multiple devices. However, that convenience also increases the potential for a security breach if an organization or government entity does not take proper cybersecurity measures. Organizations should conduct a vulnerability assessment or penetration test after implanting any cloud solutions since possible security loopholes will be different compared to when the data or apps were being hosted locally.

Conduct a Comprehensive Cybersecurity Risk Assessment

If you don’t know what cyber threats and risks your organization is facing, whether external or internal, it will be impossible to protect it effectively. You must also determine the likelihood, frequency, and impact of those risks on your operations and output. Hence, conducting risk assessments during cybersecurity awareness month can help you understand your security policies’ current scope and highlight inefficiencies or new security needs.

Cybersecurity for the Supply Chain

Besides the direct cyber threats facing your organization, there are also indirect attacks through third parties in your supply chain that you must also consider. Nearly all companies today operate inside an interconnected environment also includes their third-party suppliers. If bad actors attack a part of that ecosystem through malware, phishing, ransomware, DDoS attacks, or IoT attacks, all other members in that environment are immediately at risk. The entire supply chain will only be secure if all entities within that ecosystem maintain appropriate and effective cybersecurity measures to guarantee supply chain data safety.

Final Remarks

As cyber-crimes increase across the world, their ability to cause significant repercussions also increases. Hence, participating in this year’s cybersecurity awareness month is critical for government/public sector partners to ensure they have all the necessary resources and tools they require for staying safe online.

Security Compliance Associates (SCA) believes that the cybersecurity awareness month offers organizations the perfect opportunity to rethink their cybersecurity strategies. We can help you create a robust cybersecurity plan that can prevent, detect, respond, and recover from cyber threats. Contact us today at 727-571-1141 to elevate your cybersecurity program!