Celebrate Cybersecurity Awareness Month with PKWARE

Beginning in 2004, the president of the United States and Congress declared every October would be observed as Cybersecurity Awareness Month. This annual observation is dedicated to helping individuals become more aware of existing and emerging cyber threats so they can protect themselves online.

“Cyberattacks affect our day-to-day lives, our economy, and our national security. By destroying, corrupting, or stealing information from our computer systems and networks, they can impact electric grids and fuel pipelines, hospitals and police departments, businesses and schools, and many other critical services that Americans trust and rely on every day. . . . my administration is committed to partnering with private industry to keep the public safe.”

– President Joe Biden
2022 Cybersecurity Awareness Month presidential proclamation

This year’s theme—See Yourself in Cyber—drives home the fact that while cybersecurity can be a complex subject, it is ultimately driven by individuals and their contributions (or lack thereof) to making smart decisions online. Key steps highlighted by this year’s campaign include:

• Recognizing and Reporting Phishing
• Updating Your Software
• Using Strong Passwords
• Enabling Multi-Factor Authentication

With more than one third of tech users falling victim to phishing, according to the National Cybersecurity Alliance, it’s more important than ever for individuals to remain savvy about their online activity to protect not only themselves, but the businesses they work for and the individuals they associate with.

See Yourself in Cyber

For many, cybersecurity seems like something that is the sole responsibility of an organization’s IT team. But cybersecurity involves everyone, and like the theme of 2022’s Cybersecurity Awareness Month promotes, it’s important that individuals see themselves in cybersecurity in multiple ways.

Individual: Take Action to Stay Safe Online
Keep software up to date, installing patches and upgrades as soon as they are available. Think before you click; is the link legitimate, or a phish attempt to capture your passwords or other personal information? Maintain strong passwords and enable multi-factor authentication on sensitive and work accounts.

Organizations can promote good individual cyber hygiene through training. Skills that employees use at work to protect business information translate well to home for protecting private information in password-protected accounts such as banking, health portals, and email.

Community: Join the Cyber Workforce
Cybersecurity is a fast-growing and ever-changing landscape. If you’ve considered joining the cybersecurity workforce, now is the perfect time! Leaders across the country are dedicated to building a cybersecurity workforce that is bigger and more diverse, dedicated to solving problems and keeping individuals and businesses alike safe online.

Industry: Be Part of the Solution
We’re all stronger together, and industry partners are no exception. Operational collaboration helps organizations share information to reduce risk and build resilience. Partnerships between industry-leading cybersecurity vendors benefit organizations by creating world-class integrated solutions.

Don’t Go Alone: The Value of Cybersecurity Partnerships

The cybersecurity market is on a fast rise. Technavio recently reported that the market share is expected to increase $189.7 billion between 2020 and 2025. While this is exciting for the cybersecurity industry, it can feel daunting to organizations looking to identify a suitable and trustworthy cybersecurity partner.

Key indicators to look for include:

• A diverse portfolio of solutions and services that support your organization’s specific needs
• Credentialed professionals with extensive experience and certification
• Ability to seamlessly integrate with all existing systems within your organization
• Ongoing maintenance, support, and updates to ensure solutions continuously function at the top of their game
• Vendor relations with other technology providers to enhance existing services and solutions

Ultimately, the goal is to protect both assets and individuals. For corporations, this involves onboarding solutions that safeguard data that enables the organization to perform “business as usual.” The vast differences in systems, connections, and even what it means to do “business as usual” from one company to the next means that it’s virtually impossible to create one perfect solution in cybersecurity. This is where the ecosystem of partnerships comes in.

Partners are a vital piece in the holistic security strategy, helping customer identify threats, gain visibility into those threats, create services to assist in removing the threats, and finally, put the right solutions in place to prepare for threats.

See How PKWARE Leverages Partnerships

Cybersecurity Starts with You

Cybersecurity is intended to maintain confidentiality, integrity, and availability of data. Data should remain accessible only to those who need it. It should be accurate in order to produce the best outcomes. And, data should be accessible to those who need it whenever they need it.

At PKWARE, we leverage extensive experience in the market—nearly four decades—along with a variety of strategic partnerships to ensure that sensitive and private data remains protected no matter what threat is leveraged against it. From automated ongoing data discovery capabilities that find all your data no matter where it is stored across the enterprise, to remediation capabilities such as masking and encryption that render data unreadable to unauthorized individuals, PKWARE has the capabilities you need to remain protected against the ever-evolving threat landscape. See how we can help by requesting a free demo now.

Ultimately, an organization’s security is only as strong as each individual within it. As you review cybersecurity tips and tricks throughout October for Cybersecurity Awareness Month, remember to See Yourself in Cyber and take ownership of the part you play in cybersecurity at work, at home, and everywhere you connect.

Learn more about Cybersecurity Awareness Month from the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA).