I came across a tweet on my X feeds on 30 October 2020 that quipped “The cybersecurity awareness month has ended, go ahead and use your pet’s name as your password.” (giggles!) All joking aside, October (Cybersecurity Awareness Month) is winding down and we have seen several cybersecurity awareness programs rolled out, content shared, toolkits published, cybersecurity communities launched, events organized, and tips shared world-wide to create awareness. This is a great move considering the fact that we are digital citizens, however, I believe attackers/cybercrimes don’t go for either a holiday in October or during other months, they are always busy searching for vulnerabilities, weak links, and targets e.g. targeting the human firewall to get unauthorized access to systems so as to commit cybercrimes.
Cybersecurity seems like a complex subject to many, but it’s really all about people
Below are a few reasons why October shouldn’t be the only cybersecurity awareness month;
Because:
- Cybercrimes are not only committed in specific months and dates, they happen every second.
- Ransom attacks are rising globally.
- All multi-factor authentication (MFA) mechanisms can be compromised.
- Connected devices are attacked within 5mins by malicious actors once connected to the internet.
- Cyberstalking cases are on the rise than never before.
- Identity theft scams and online harassment happens every second.
- Fake news spreads faster than a biological virus.
- Recovering from a cyber-attack is very expensive it is estimated that cybercrimes will costs to businesses $8 trillion by 2022
- 4.2+ billion records are exposed by hackers each year.
- Old-school awareness training does not hack it anymore. Your email filters have an average 7-10% failure rate; you need a strong human firewall as your last line of defense.
- Cybercriminals don’t send notifications prior to any attack
- etc.
In regards to the above, cybersecurity should be everyone’s responsibilities and by practicing a few of the tips below, and remaining vigilant, you are doing your part to protect yourself and others online;
- Think before you click send or post
- Think privacy anytime your online
- Share with care, avoid sharenting and oversharing your personal information
- Review the security and privacy settings of any App/software you download.
- Think security
- Cybersecurity is a serious issue, but our conversations with everyone don’t have to be scary.
- Update your apps and software
- Make cybersecurity relatable and share how practicing good cyber hygiene is something that anyone can do
- Change your passwords frequently -remember your password is the only line of defense between you and the attacker.
- Regularly update your operating system
- Be mindful about sharenting.
- If you connect it, protect it.
- Turn on Multifactor Authentication (MFA)
- Always remember that you are a target of hackers.
- Don’t ignore notifications for software updates
- Before downloading anything from the internet, ensure that it is from a trusted source.
- Post online only that you are comfortable sharing offline.
- Be cyber aware
- Make cybersecurity interactive and relatable
- Hold a family “tech talk” and discuss how each family member can protect their devices, accounts, and personal information.
- Respect digital rights, copyright, and intellectual property rights.
- Be cyber smart i.e. practice basic cyber-hygiene.
- Avoid peer-to-peer file sharing sites.
- Train your teams and reward them for reporting phishing emails
- Back to basics i.e. just practicing cyber hygiene basics provides a solid baseline of security.
Conclusion:
Every month should be a cyber awareness MONTH because we can only achieve this through continuous training and education for all and since all efforts are geared towards creating awareness, we can borrow from a proverb by Benjamin Franklin goes – ‘Tell me and I forget, teach me and I may remember, involve me and I learn.’ Cybersecurity professionals have a big role to play to make a real impact.
Cybersecurity education is the silver bullet! Our industry is led by vendors and we continue to seek security through products like firewalls, IDS/IPS, encryption, anti-malware, DLP, etc. We invest in products instead of people yet real and measurable results can be achieved by investing in informationsecurityawareness. To achieve tangible results, organizations should prioritize humanfirewall over product.
#Doyourpart
#secureourworld
I originally published this article here
