Led by the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) and the National Cyber Security Alliance (NCSA), this October is National Cybersecurity Awareness Month. This campaign represents a vital partnership between government and industry. Now in its 17th year, Cybersecurity Month aims to raise cybersecurity awareness across the United States, helping all Americans access resources to stay safe and secure online while empowering the public to own their role in cybersecurity and increasing our nation’s resilience to cyber threats.
This year’s overarching theme—Do Your Part. #BeCyberSmart—encourages individuals to enhance cybersecurity in every aspect of daily life. Each weekly theme throughout October supports the overarching theme and builds off Week One’s message, “If You Connect It, Protect It.”
Cybersecurity Month will continue to focus on the following areas throughout the month:
While activities are already in full swing, it’s not too late to review the previous weeks’ themes. Even more, the rest of this month presents a great opportunity to leverage those earlier themes into your work for the rest of October. Chemicals are used in everything from the medicines that maintain our health to the refrigeration for our food supply to the fuel for our vehicles, and even the microchips that run our smartphones. National Cybersecurity Awareness Month is a great chance for the chemical distribution industry, a key part of the critical infrastructure sector, to play a major role in our nation’s cyber resiliency.
Chemical sector companies, for instance, are increasingly incorporating cloud services into their business operations, in areas like IT, human resources, marketing, and supply chain management. Advanced cloud services offer benefits, but these benefits can also come with new cybersecurity risks. This October is the perfect time to highlight those risks and spread the word on good cybersecurity practices throughout the chemical distribution industry.
Whether it’s blogging about cybersecurity, hosting a webinar with your stakeholders, or simply sharing CISA cybersecurity resources, everyone can get involved. You don’t need any special computer knowledge to help spread cybersecurity awareness. Actions can be as simple as discussing cybersecurity with colleagues, coworkers, and stakeholders. Make them aware of simple cybersecurity steps that CISA highlights in their resources.
You can also follow CISA on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube to stay up-to-date on current cybersecurity threats and best practices. Also, be sure to use the hashtag #BeCyberSmart to join the conversation and help promote cybersecurity awareness.
These are great ways to make your voice heard and show your support for National Cybersecurity Awareness Month. Please email the CISA National Cybersecurity Awareness Month Team with any questions, and check out links to other CISA resources to learn more about good cybersecurity practices you can put to use this October and throughout the year.
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