October is Cyber Security Awareness Month and an annual reminder for all of us to stay secure online.
With the ever-evolving digital landscape that now includes Artificial Intelligence (AI), cybersecurity threats are becoming more sophisticated, targeting individuals and businesses alike. It’s crucial to recognise the role we all play in securing the digital world, from using strong passwords to implementing comprehensive security measures in organizations.
The Australian Cyber Security Centre (ACSC) leads the Australian Government’s efforts to improve cyber security.
The theme for 2024 is ‘Cyber security is everyone’s business’. There are 4 simple steps you can take to be cyber wise and significantly boost your cyber security:
- Turn on multi-factor authentication – Multi-factor authentication (MFA) is one of the best ways to protect your accounts.
- Keep your devices and software up to date – Check that automatic updates are on and install updates as soon as possible.
- Use strong and unique passwords, such as a passphrase – Passphrases are more secure versions of passwords, using 4 or more random words. Consider storing your passwords and passphrases in a reputable password manager.
- Recognise and report phishing – Visit the ACSC Emails and texts information page for more details on how to identify and report phishing attempts.
Find out more about Cyber Security Awareness Month 2024 by visiting the Australian Cyber Security Centre website.
10 Ways to Promote Cyber Security Awareness
Don’t miss this opportunity to reinforce the importance of cyber security within your organisation. What will you do to raise awareness that cyber security is everyone’s business?
Here is our list of 10 things you can do during Cyber Security Awareness Month:
- Plan ahead. Work with your People & Culture, Risk Management and Communication teams in a rollout plan to engage and reach as many employees as possible.
- Set the ‘tone from the top’ by creating a culture of cyber security awareness. The entire C-suite needs to understand and embrace cybersecurity efforts. Cyber security habits are best learned through management taking the lead.
- Review your cyber security touchpoints. Is cyber security awareness part of onboarding? How often does your organisation communicate about cyber security? Which vendors pose the highest cyber risk for your organisation?
- Arrange cyber security awareness training sessions. Awareness training should reinforce that cyber security is everyone’s business and stress the importance of cyber security at work and at home.
- Run a simulated phishing campaign to evaluate employee behaviour on receipt of a socially engineered phishing email, analyse results and provide a report of the results to all staff.
- Review and update key elements of your IT-Disaster Recovery Plan or Data Breach Incident Response Plan.
- With cyber attacks and third party data breaches on the rise, conduct a Crisis Management Team simulation exercise covering one of these risks.
- Provide management a high level presentation covering the concept of operation of the Data Breach Incident Response Plan.
- Run on-line games and quizzes such as crosswords and find a word with cybersecurity words as the central theme.
- Reward good behaviour and people who embrace cyber security. Rewards don’t have to be expensive – small gift vouchers are often enough and always appreciated.
Want to Strengthen Cyber Resilience?
InConsult is an ACSC partner and we strongly encourage all organisations to get involved in Cyber Security Awareness Month. Contact us if you would like help in planning or conducting cyber awareness training or email phishing campaigns.
Remember that whatever you do, it’s all about keeping cyber security front of mind! Check out InConsult’s Cyber Risk Management capabilities to find out how we can help you build a more resilient organisation.
Be more resilient to a wide range of cyber risks and contact us to discuss how we can help strengthen your cyber security posture.
#staysecureonline #CyberSecurityAwarenessMonth2024