October Is Cybersecurity Awareness Month: Are You Ready To #BeCyberSmart?
October. A month has been taken over by goblins, zombies, ghosts, and all the other things that come out at night. A month that sees us satisfying the various creatures and characters at the door with sweet treats. Ghosts, zombies, and goblins are not the only frightening things you should be thinking about in October.
October is National Cybersecurity Awareness Month, and despite countless warnings, hundreds of thousands of businesses and organizations lose money and sensitive data to real goblins and zombies, also known as cybercriminals, every year. Cybercriminals are very savvy at tricking you into giving them a treat. Cyber risks are frighteningly real, and everyone needs to be aware of the threats.
Cybersecurity Awareness Month was launched by the National Cyber Security Alliance (NCSA) and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) in 2004. National Cybersecurity Awareness Month was designed to ensure that everyone has the resources and tools they need to stay safe and secure online. The National Cyber Security Alliance continues to raise awareness about the importance of cybersecurity across the globe. 2021’s theme, #BeCyberSmart, encourages individuals and organizations to protect their part of cyberspace. Personal accountability and taking proactive measures to enhance cybersecurity is a crucial part of being #CyberSmart.
How Can Your Organization #BeCyberSmart?
If you own, run, or work for an organization, you are a part of the threat landscape in 2021, and you should be thinking about the organization’s cybersecurity strategy. Cybercriminals do not care about the size of an organization or the industry your organization is in, they are interested in your sensitive data assets, financial information, and customer and employee data.
If you have a cybersecurity strategy or have not created a strategy yet, we encourage you to make a plan for Cybersecurity Awareness Month to ensure that everyone is on the same page. If you are not providing training sessions for your employees that are centred around good cyber skills, good online habits, and how to stay safe online, this month is a great time to get started.
Turn It Into An Event
One of the best ways to get everyone involved in your organization’s efforts to #BeCyberSmart, you can host training and learning sessions over lunch. You can bring in a speaker to talk to your employees or watch a webinar as a team. There will be several learning opportunities this October, and if you alert your employees to the opportunities and reach out to speakers now, you will stand a better chance of setting aside time for learning and discussion sessions that will fit within everyone’s schedules.
Conduct a Comprehensive Cybersecurity Assessment
If you are not aware of the cyber threats and risks your organization faces on a daily basis, whether the threats are external or internal, you will not be able to adequately protect your organization. You will also need to determine the impact of those risks on your organization. Hence, conducting a detailed assessment during Cybersecurity Awareness Month can help you gain a better understanding of your organization’s security policies and address inefficiencies and new security needs.
Schedule a Consultation With Us
As cybercrime increases across the globe, the ability of these crimes to cause significant repercussions also increases. Hence, being active in this year’s Cybersecurity Awareness Month is critical for organizations to ensure they have all the necessary resources and tools they need to stay safe online. OnServe believes that Cybersecurity Awareness Month offers organizations a great opportunity to rethink their cybersecurity strategies. We can help your organization create a cybersecurity plan that can prevent, detect, respond to, and recover from cyber threats.
Do You Know Your Technology?
To better protect your organization from cybersecurity threats, you need to have a clear understanding of what you need to protect. It is important to know what your critical assets are, as well as the value of your assets and technology. Your organization holds incredible assets such as employee and customer databases. On the dark web, social security numbers with phone numbers and email addresses hold significant value.
Your cybersecurity strategy should be centred around protecting your critical data and educating your employees and end-users on the steps they can take to help. For many organizations, safeguards like stronger password authentication policies, cloud backup systems, regular software patching, and limiting admin privileges need to be implemented. Employees should be educated and trained on the importance of cybersecurity and how to handle sensitive information.
We recommend having discussions with different teams in your organization and highlight all your sensitive assets. IT security consultants can help you get through this discussion in an effective and structured manner. Once you have highlighted your assets, you will need to ensure your organization enforces the proper access controls. However, identifying your critical assets, applying access control, and implementing stronger password authentication policies will not be sufficient against internal threats or motivated cybercriminals. Your cybersecurity defence needs to be taken a step further. It is important to monitor your organization’s assets.
Protect Your Organization From Internal and External Threats
The monsters in the cyber world are not always hidden, and they do not all come from the outside. You could have a cyber monster inside your organization and you are not aware of it. You may have one or more employees who turn into disgruntled monsters, or they can accidentally turn into gremlins. These internal cyber monsters can cause a significant amount of disruption by opening doors to let the external cyber monsters in. Cyber monsters do exist, and they can wreak havoc at any time of the year.
This October, we do not want you to have to worry about the monsters, zombies, and other creatures that are lurking around waiting to cause destruction. Aligning your organization with an IT services provider will ensure that your organization is protected against all aspects of cyber threats. Whether it is helping your organization develop effective policies, monitoring online activity, and backing up critical and sensitive data files, we will protect your organization.
Contact us today to schedule your consultation.