CampusGuard is proud to be a 2019 champion of National Cyber Security Awareness Month (NCSAM). Held every October, NCSAM is a collaborative effort between government and industry to raise awareness about the importance of cybersecurity and to ensure that all Americans have the resources they need to be safer and more secure online.
NCSAM 2019 will emphasize personal accountability and stress the importance of taking proactive steps to enhance cybersecurity at home and in the workplace. This year’s overarching message – Own IT. Secure IT. Protect IT. – will focus on key areas including citizen privacy, consumer devices, and ecommerce security.
Here at CampusGuard, we hear so many examples of individuals thinking and believing that cybersecurity is someone else’s problem. “It’s the vendor’s issue.” “It’s an IT problem to solve.” “It’s not my job.” “There is nothing that I can do about it.” These are all sentences we hear regularly.
But the reality is that Cybersecurity is everyone’s responsibility. If you are like me and grew up before the Internet, global connectivity, email, social media and a plethora of other interconnected networks and tools, you will recall that battles were fought on soil, with real men and women fighting for ideals and land. Regrettably, that is still the case today. However, another battlefront has emerged in the recent decades and that is within the cyber world. This is a place in which we all work, shop, bank, play and communicate.
The promise of the Internet to bring information to the fingertips of the masses has transformed our world and our lives in so many wonderful ways. And yet, it has also opened a gateway for criminals, nation states and other nefarious characters to do harm. And we are all victims, whether we have been directly impacted or not. The costs of identity theft, ransomware, fraud, and other cyber breaches has had significant ramifications across the globe.
So what can you do about it? Take cybersecurity seriously in October and every month. Here’s seven easy ways to do so yourself, and share with others as well:
- Keep your systems up-to-date with the latest releases of anti-virus software.
- Use unique, complex passwords for different accounts.
- Don’t leave your computer unlocked when you walk away from it.
- Turn off Bluetooth and WiFi when they are not in use.
- If an email looks suspicious, it probably is nefarious. Don’t open it.
- Be aware of what you share on social media. It’s a balancing act between being “social” and “secure.”
- Check the settings on your devices and browser(s) to ensure that you are leaving as little tracking mechanisms enabled as possible.
Be aware. Be engaged. And realize every day that you are on the front lines of this new battlefield. Together, we can make a difference. Your actions or inactions matter!
