Content Topics
- Security Awareness Impacts Everybody
- Security Awareness Expands Beyond Marketing
- How to Integrate Security Awareness into your Daily Life
- Final Thoughts
Security awareness is a critical aspect in today’s digital world for many. Yet every year, October has become more than just the start of spooky season for millions of people. It’s become a plethora of all things related to digital and online security. Since 2004, October has been established as being Cybersecurity Awareness Month. And let’s be honest, the entire security industry can be spooky enough to deal with as is already.
From hearing about the latest ransomware attacks covered by media outlets to having my family ask me to explain data privacy, security can be intimidating to everybody. It’s an industry that can be scary to fully understand for everybody, including those already working in this industry. However, security can impact everybody. In this post, I’ll cover why security awareness should be an ongoing priority for both consumers and companies, not just throughout the month of October only.
Security Awareness Impacts Everybody
Imagine you’re scrolling Instagram or TikTok and you hear about how your data is being sold to third parties. Scary isn’t it? Next thing you know you’re getting a letter in the mail about a class action lawsuit because your data was stolen and sold on illicit online marketplaces because of a company breach. You can apply this same sentiment to having either your debit or credit card number stolen and used to purchase merchandise in another state that you reside in currently.
The safety of our devices, data, and online identities are only as strong as the weakest link. And sometimes the weakest link in security isn’t necessarily always the everyday consumers but the companies they frequent regularly. Consumers can be social engineered just as easily as a company employee without proper security awareness training. Like a domino effect from company security breaches, security issues can then be passed down to the consumer. Even if the consumer was not the cause of a breach. Either way you look at it, security impacts everybody.
Security Awareness Expands Beyond Marketing
The month or so prior to October, countless marketing teams ramp up their website content and marketing initiatives to drive more awareness about cybersecurity. Marketing teams have historically driven the security narrative. Their efforts have worked diligently to emphasize the need for brand trustworthiness, promoting how companies can better safeguard personal information and ensure greater consumer data security. The issue is that security awareness extends beyond marketing initiatives or the month of October. Security awareness is something that should be an ongoing initiative for many consumers and companies. Why? Because, again, cybersecurity impacts everybody.
How to Integrate Security Awareness into your Daily Life
In today’s digitally driven world, it’s become more critical for both employees and consumers to develop a strong commitment to security awareness. You can look at it this way… If you would avoid a random request in your personal email from an internal Prince coming to send you lots of money because you know it’s fake, then you should treat any suspicious emails you receive at work the same way. It’s important to become somewhat knowledgeable about your own personal role in security awareness every day.
Many people can say “Oh, I know what to do if necessary. But cybersecurity doesn’t really impact me.” I like to call those everyone’s famous last words until they get the alert that their card has been used fraudulently. Every time we swipe our cards, log into our emails, or post an update on social media pages, we make ourselves potential targets for cyber threats that lurk every day.
And listen, I get it, the security awareness trainings that your work may require you to sit through can be the most boring thing ever about on the job training. However, these trainings are often created by security professionals (or with the support of security professionals) to ensure employees know what to do in the event of an issue. So, how can you integrate security awareness into your everyday life? Here are a few security awareness tips you can implement both in everyday life as well as in the workplace today:
1. Keep your devices, networks, systems, and software updated regularly.
The latest software versions and firmware will commonly (but not necessarily always) include security features to better secure your digital environment more effectively.
2. Secure your devices and enlist security software.
Securing your devices can include physical security efforts by locking them up or putting them away when not in use. It can also involve implementing better password security (we’ll cover that in more detail below), and enlisting the support of a security software. A reliable antivirus and anti-malware software can detect and remove threats before they harm your devices.
3. Change your passwords quarterly and activate multi-factor authentication (MFA) on account.
Listen, you are preaching to the choir about not wanting to change your passwords so regularly. Or that you can barely remember any of them at all. However, secure devices and complex passwords can be the key to keeping your data safe from cyber thieves. If you have trouble remembering passwords, consider using a password manager like 1Password or Bitwarden. And don’t forget to set up MFA!
4. Secure your Wi-Fi network.
Open or weakly protected Wi-Fi networks are a prime target for hackers to access it successfully. Ensure your home network is password protected with a complex password and you must change the default router login credentials.
5. Limit the personal information that you share publicly online.
I cannot tell you the amount of personal conversations I have had where people have asked me what to do because their Facebook was hacked or their device got malware because they clicked on a malicious ad or link. The best rule of thumb is that the less personal information you share, the less cybercriminals can exploit. Regularly reviewing your privacy setting can be helpful to avoid these issues. The same can be said about social engineering, too. If you have a personal connection reach out with a strange request via social media or email, verify if it’s legit with them directly before obliging.
6. Ensure you back up your important data regularly.
I cannot deny that even though I work in this industry, I still remember having to re-write papers or re-do projects during my Bachelor’s program because guess who didn’t save anything or backup my data fully? Yup, me. Regularly backup your data by means of either to an external USB drive, external hard drive, or with a cloud service provider. If your device gets compromised, you won’t lose everything.
Final Thoughts
Security awareness goes beyond just marketing. It goes beyond just one month out of a year that cybersecurity is talked about so regularly. Security awareness requires everyone to take into consideration on how they can be better about their own digital security.
As always, thank you for taking the time reading this post and being on this journey with me.
Until next time, stay safe out there and don’t click any unverified links! #cantphishme
– Amanda
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