To celebrate the 20th Cybersecurity Awareness Month, CISA has launched a new program, meant to promote four critical actions that businesses and individuals can take to improve cybersecurity.
Since 2004, October has been dedicated to raising awareness on the importance of cybersecurity for both private and public sectors, as part of a collaborative effort between government and industry.
This year, CISA is introducing Secure Our World, an initiative to deliver an “enduring message” to be integrated across CISA’s awareness campaigns and programs, encouraging both businesses and individuals to take action to protect their devices.
“Secure Our World is the theme for this year’s Cybersecurity Awareness Month and will remain the enduring theme for future awareness month campaigns,” CISA announced.
As part of this awareness-raising initiative, CISA is encouraging small to medium-sized businesses (SMBs), individuals, and families to use strong passwords, to turn on multi-factor authentication, to be wary of unsolicited messages and report them, and to always keep their software updated.
Businesses, CISA says, should educate their employees on identifying and reporting phishing attempts and on avoiding unsolicited links and attachments, which typically lead to network compromise.
“Your business is digitally connected—to employees, vendors, and customers. Your systems store sensitive information. Sensitive business information and customers’ and employees’ personal data could be at risk from online threats. No business is too small to be a target for online crime—the fact is, small businesses are much more likely to be targeted by cybercriminals than larger companies,” CISA tells businesses.
In addition to introducing the new Secure Our World program, CISA has partnered with the National Cybersecurity Alliance (NCA) to provide businesses and individuals with resources and messaging about staying safe online, including guides, infographics, templates, and graphic resources.
“We can all collaborate to build a safer, more trusted digital world! By learning the four simple steps we can take to stay safe online at home, work, and school, and sharing these tips with our community, we can all become significantly safer online,” CISA notes.
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