Every October, Cybersecurity Awareness Month gives us a great chance to improve the systems and practices keeping our organizations safe from data breaches, phishing, and other threats. But you can’t make a positive impact without the right strategy. So, where should you start?
In this guide, we’ve got ten ways for you to get the most out of Cybersecurity Awareness Month. From running phishing simulations to championing awareness training, here’s how you can celebrate October and make cybersecurity a priority every day of the year.
First, let’s look at the history behind Cybersecurity Awareness Month.
What is Cybersecurity Awareness Month?
Since 2004, the United States President and Congress have declared October to be Cybersecurity Awareness Month, using the occasion to encourage the public and private sectors to work together in raising awareness about the importance of cybersecurity.
And for good reason: estimates suggest cybercrime will cause around 14.57 trillion USD in global damage in 2024. With human error contributing to over 80% of global cybersecurity incidents, initiatives like Cybersecurity Awareness Month are a crucial way to educate vulnerable individuals and limit the opportunities for scammers and other bad actors to take advantage of us.
Now in its twenty-first year, Cybersecurity Awareness Month is a global effort encouraging us to act together in the face of cyber threats. But when scams like AI deep fakes and WhatsApp impersonation are evolving every day, our cybersecurity efforts need to evolve too.
That’s where our list comes in.
10 ways to make an impact with Cybersecurity Awareness Month
For 2024, the theme of Cybersecurity Awareness Month is: Secure Our World. In that spirit, here’s our list of ten ways every CISO can make a positive impact in October and beyond.
#1: Share a list of key cybersecurity best practices
If you do one thing this October, do this: share a list of key cybersecurity best practices with every member of your organization.
No matter what your existing employee cybersecurity posture may be, Cybersecurity Awareness Month is an opportunity to either introduce some core practices (like phishing awareness), or help your experts stay current with advanced techniques (like minimizing their digital footprint).
Fortunately for you, we’ve got a great list of best practices to get you started. From setting strong passwords and using multi-factor authentication tools to building data security awareness, here’s everything you need to set the right cybersecurity foundation. Thank us later!
#2: Protect your team with unforgettable awareness training
Sharing a list of best practices is a great first step – but to really boost your team’s cybersecurity posture, you need to provide them with the right awareness training. This includes basic topics like cyber incident response and avoiding malware, through to advanced techniques like detecting audio and video deep fakes and social engineering attacks.
But remember, not all awareness training is created equal. You need to offer immersive, interactive sessions that people can’t help but love. That way, people won’t just click through to the end of the course and get back to their to-do list. Instead, they’ll not only apply what they’re learning, but they’ll actually enjoy the experience too.
To see how we can help, chat to one of our experts today.
#3: Highlight your executive and leadership engagement
Next up, show your teams the real value of cybersecurity by highlighting how important it is to your organization’s leadership. If you don’t demonstrate this, you create the risk that people will see your Cybersecurity Awareness Month efforts as mere window dressing.
This can be something as simple as having your company leadership participate in key events to show their support, like a kickoff presentation or a roundtable discussion. And don’t forget to involve your leaders in your awareness training and phishing simulations, too.
#4: Launch some truly sneaky phishing simulations
Great lists and awareness training are one thing – but now you need to put it all on the line with world-class phishing simulations that will test your team and keep them on their toes. After all, phishing attacks are still the biggest threat we face – and they’re getting sneakier every day.
Launch a phishing simulation to set your baseline level of vulnerability, then keep your teams on their toes with regular tests mimicking the attacks they’re most likely to face in real life. Ideally, you should match your target group with the spoofed domains and attachments they’d find most tempting, for example, sending your recruitment team a bogus list of top candidates.
And if you’re looking for some more inspiration, don’t worry: we’ve got a checklist for that, too!
#5: Report on key cybersecurity metrics
You know the old adage, ‘what gets measured gets managed’? Well, it may not be 100% correct 100% of the time – but when it comes to cybersecurity, it’s 100% true.
To really make progress with building a culture of cybersecurity, you need to track and report on essential metrics like phishing vulnerability, the percentage of users with strong passwords, awareness training completion and satisfaction scores, and more.
This encourages continuous improvement, helping you to pinpoint the places where your teams are already doing great at staying secure, and show where things still need more work.
And speaking of people doing great…
#6: Celebrate your cybersecurity champions
Cybersecurity Awareness Month is more than just a chance to highlight the dangers we face online – it’s a golden opportunity to celebrate those cyber champions who go above and beyond to keep everyone safe. So, be sure to let these individuals know how much you appreciate them!
You might decide to share a leaderboard of those who have successfully reported the most phishing test emails, or who have completed the most awareness training modules. Or maybe you’d just like to shout out a dedicated system administrator who keeps the ship afloat.
No matter what you decide, don’t be shy with your praise!
#7: Remind everyone how to report their cybersecurity concerns
These days, cyber threats can come from anywhere: we’re just as likely to be the victim of an insider threat as we are to be targeted by a ransomware group. That’s why it’s crucial for everyone to stay vigilant for red flags, and to know exactly what to do if they see anything weird.
Do people know how to flag a suspicious email? Can they escalate a misconfigured file permission? Do they know what a data breach looks like – and how to sound the alarm?
Even if people are broadly familiar with these incident response systems and processes, Cybersecurity Awareness Month can be a great opportunity to check in and make sure.
#8: Review your cybersecurity tools, platforms, and software
While we’re talking about incident response systems and processes, Cybersecurity Awareness Month is an excellent opportunity to review your suite of tools and platforms to make sure you have the right mix of support at a technical level.
Think about your password managers, VPNs, awareness training platforms, virus scanning software, data encryption tools, cloud data storage, and anything else that might be relevant.
Have any of your needs changed since you last renewed these tools? Do your teams need any new software subscriptions? At the very least, thinking about this every October can help keep your cybersecurity budget in check – a smart move when spending is under close scrutiny.
#9: Encourage people to think about their personal cybersecurity, too
Beyond cybersecurity protections in the workplace, it’s crucial to remember scammers target organizations by targeting people personally, too. You can have the most seamless and watertight workplace cybersecurity practices – but your team might still be vulnerable at home.
So, take the time to remind people about their personal cyber hygiene. Are their personal devices and data adequately protected? Are they sharing too much about their personal – or professional – lives on social media, creating the risk of identity theft? Are they using secure WiFi at home?
Cybersecurity Awareness Month can be a great opportunity to get people thinking about their cyber safety at a family level, too. This way, your teams can stay safe at work and at home.
#10: Keep up your cybersecurity momentum beyond October
Finally, you need to do what you can to keep up the momentum. After all, cyber threats don’t stop at the end of October – so neither should your cybersecurity efforts.
So, once you’ve capped off Cybersecurity Awareness Month with a summary of all the amazing stuff you’ve done this year, follow it up with a roadmap for how you’re going to stay secure in the face of new threats. Ideally, this should include a foundation of regular awareness training and phishing simulations.
Get the most out of Cybersecurity Awareness Month with Riot
Whew, it’s going to be a busy October! But you know who else is busy? Scammers.
That’s why we all need to get the most out of Cybersecurity Awareness Month and keep our organizations safe with the right awareness training, phishing simulations, data breach monitoring, and more. And now, you’ve got everything you need to make a start.
To find out how Riot can help you and your team stay on top of cyber threats every October and beyond, get in touch with one of our experts today.
