October is Cybersecurity Awareness Month. This year’s theme is Secure Our World. Ideal Integrations is fully committed to creating a cybersecure world and have made it our mission to reduce cyber risk with every client we serve. We have participated as a cybersecurity champion for many years and believe that Cybersecurity Awareness Month is crucial for highlighting the growing importance of cybersecurity in our daily lives.
Why Cybersecurity Awareness Month Matters
While we focus on cybersecurity every day of the year, we appreciate that October provides an opportunity for every business and individual to take important cybersecurity steps to Secure Our World and stay safe online. Founded in 2004, Cybersecurity Awareness Month, held each October, is the world’s foremost initiative aimed at promoting cybersecurity awareness and best practices. Cybersecurity Awareness Month is a collaborative effort among businesses, government agencies, colleges and universities, associations, nonprofit organizations, tribal communities, and individuals committed to educating others about online safety.
“Ideal Integrations is a proud Cybersecurity Awareness Month Champion. We believe this is an essential commitment by our industry to help increase awareness about the risks and threats facing businesses and individuals,” says Michael Stratos, CEO of thinkCSC. “We are proud to support this worthwhile effort to Secure Our World.”
From mobile to connected home devices, technology is deeply intertwined in our lives. Emerging technologies have many great benefits for society but with those modern technologies come new opportunities for bad actors to disrupt our online activities at home, school or at work.
Becoming More Cybersecure
Cybersecurity Awareness Month aims to highlight some of the emerging challenges that exist in the world of cybersecurity today and provide straightforward, actionable guidance that anyone can follow to create a safe and secure digital world for themselves and their loved ones. As we focus on this year’s theme to Secure Our World, there are four simple steps every individual can take each day to ensure online safety:
- Understand the benefits of using a password manager and dispelling existing myths around password manager security and ease of use.
- Turn on multifactor authentication on personal devices and business networks.
- Recognize and report phishing – still one of the primary threat actions used by cybercriminals today.
- Install updates on a regular basis and turn on automated updates.
Ideal has a variety of resources available to help with each of these efforts.
Use a Password Manager
A password manager is a software application that securely stores and manages all your passwords in one place. The app generates strong, unique passwords for each account and automatically provides them when you need to log in. This eliminates the need to remember multiple passwords and reduces the risk of using weak or easily guessable passwords. With most people on the average using more than 80 passwords, the password manager is a critical tool for your password management strategy that should be required for users to access your network.
Utilize Multi-Factor Authentication Wherever It’s Available
Multi-factor authentication adds an extra layer of security to your accounts by requiring two or more forms of identity verification prior to granting access, such as entering a code sent by text message or using a fingerprint or facial recognition system. This makes it much harder for hackers to gain access to your accounts, even if they have your password, which greatly reduces the risk of compromises due to stolen passwords and protects your company’s data and networks.
Avoid Phishing Scams
To avoid email spoofing and phishing scams, organizations must enhance their training efforts, advising employees on how to best manage their email. Recognizing spoofed emails can’t be something you talk about during onboarding and then never mention again.
- Teach employees how to recognize a faked address and how to expand header information.
- Teach your staff how to hover over links, without clicking on them, to verify the entire URL.
- Encourage employees to double-check with a sender, especially if the request is for money or account information. A quick phone call to a colleague or an executive staff member may save you – and your company – thousands or more.
- Implement policies that require two people to be involved with any payments or wire transfers.
Install and Update Software
Regularly installing updates and enabling automated updates is crucial for maintaining a secure and efficient IT environment. These updates often contain patches for vulnerabilities that cybercriminals can exploit, as well as improvements in system performance and stability. By staying up to date, you protect your systems from the latest threats, reduce the risk of downtime, and ensure that your software is operating at its best, ultimately safeguarding your business data and operations.
Cybersecurity Awareness Month continues to build momentum and impact with the goal of providing everyone with the information they need to stay safe and more secure online. Ideal Integrations is proud to support this critically important online safety awareness and education initiative, led by the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency and the National Cybersecurity Alliance. For more information about Cybersecurity Awareness Month and how to participate, visit CISA and the National Cybersecurity Alliance.
Becoming more cybersecure is a collective effort, and we’re proud to do our part as a NCSAM champion. We invite you to follow us on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn as we share tips and guidelines throughout the month on best practices.
