Promote These 4 Key Tactics for Cybersecurity Awareness Month

If you’ve been seeing more messages about cybersecurity online this month, there’s a reason. Since 2004, October has been designated as Cybersecurity Awareness Month. It puts special emphasis on helping people protect themselves against data breaches and other malicious digital attacks.

In just the second quarter of 2022, cyberattacks increased a record-breaking 32% year over year. Ransomware attacks on organizations around the world were also up, by 59%.

The cybersecurity landscape continues to get more dangerous, making any time a good time to think about digital security. Human error is one of the top enablers of data breaches. One bright spot in that message is that humans can correct those errors to live and work more securely online. 

Cybersecurity Awareness Month provides us the opportunity to focus on some key aspects of security and to use the free resources available to build a culture of security among your team.

This year’s theme is one that everyone can embrace and understand. It’s “See Yourself in Cyber.” The theme emphasizes that while cybersecurity may seem like the complex realm of only IT people, it’s really just about keeping people safe.

Everyone plays a part in individual cybersecurity by following the habits of good cyber hygiene. See yourself in cyber means to see yourself as part of the solution to preventing successful cyberattacks.

Let’s go through the four key tactics being promoted during Cybersecurity Awareness Month that you can bring to your team. 

Courtesy of National Cybersecurity Alliance

Four Behaviors to Improve Your Online Security 

Enable Multi-Factor Authentication

Using multi-factor authentication (MFA) on an account can reduce the risk of a fraudulent sign-in by 99.9%. That’s a huge factor when it comes to securing website and cloud SaaS accounts. 

But then why do only about 26% of companies use MFA? It’s often because of user pushback that it’s too inconvenient. But not only are a few seconds a small price to pay for significantly increased security, MFA is becoming easier.

With solutions such as single sign-on (SSO), for example, users can log in and use MFA just one time to access all their work accounts. Plus, MFA tools like biometrics are becoming more easily available, offering a quick way to authenticate that keeps accounts secure.

Use Strong Passwords & a Password Manager

With the rise of cloud computers has come a rise in password breaches. With data being stored online, hackers have gone all-in on account compromise as the easiest way to get to that data. It also offers an opportunity to plant ransomware and conduct other types of attacks.

The number one cause of data breaches globally is now compromised credentials.

This tactic involves a two-pronged defense against breached passwords. One is to ensure you use strong passwords on every account. A strong password is one that has:

• Upper and lower-case letters
• At least one symbol
• At least one number
• Is at least 10-12 characters long

The second prong of defense is to use a password manager. Let’s face it, it’s impossible for most people to remember unique, strong passwords for every online account they use. A password manager provides a place to securely store all your passwords, and you only need to know one to access all the others.

Password managers are inexpensive, some personal accounts are free. Business accounts allow companies to more easily keep track of the various cloud tools being used and access any of them if necessary.

Update Device & Application Software

Only 20% of Android devices are using the latest operating system. That’s just one example of how updates are often neglected. The same is true for computer operating systems and mobile applications.

Users often neglect updates because they don’t want to be inconvenienced. They also may be afraid that an update will “break” something, and don’t want to deal with that.

But not applying updates promptly leaves devices open to data breaches. Those updates often contain security patches to seal newly found vulnerabilities. It’s best to enable automated updates or, better yet, sign up for managed IT services which include managing updates to ensure they’re installed promptly and correctly. 

Recognize & Report Phishing

Phishing has been a major cause of cyberattacks for over two decades. It continues to get more sophisticated and has now branched out from email only, to include SMS phishing and phishing over social media.

It’s important to understand the various ways to identify phishing and to report it when you see it. When you see a phishing email come in on your work account, co-workers are likely seeing the same thing. But not all may spot it. By reporting phishing, the entire organization benefits because everyone gets a heads-up. 

Some quick tips from Cybersecurity Awareness Month on how to spot phishing are:

• Does it contain an offer that’s too good to be true?  
• Does it include a sense of urgency or alarm?  
• Is it poorly crafted with misspellings and bad grammar? 
• Is the greeting generic?  
• Does it include requests to send personal information? 
• Does it try to get you to click on an unfamiliar hyperlink? 
• Is it strange or unusual? 
• Does the sender’s e-mail address match the company it’s coming from? 

Schedule a Cybersecurity Check-up Today! 

Why not make October the time for an annual cybersecurity check-up? Unbound Digital can help your Johnson City, Tennessee with a thorough review of your current security, and make suggestions to reduce risk.
Contact us today to schedule a consultation. Call 423-467-7777 or reach us online.