This year sees the 17th National Cybersecurity Awareness Month (NCSAM), covering the duration of October. The event was created by the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Intelligence Agency (CISA) and it has since been developed and supported by a host of organizations and interested parties. NCSAM set out to raise awareness about the importance of cybersecurity in the U.S., ensuring that people have the resources they need to be safer and more secure online.
Each year carries a different theme. For 2020 this is:
“Do Your Part. #BeCyberSmart.”
This theme is designed to encourage individuals and organizations to ‘own’ their role in protecting their part of cyberspace. Hence 2020 sees an emphasis on personal accountability plus the importance of taking proactive steps to enhance cybersecurity. at all levels of a business.
Looking into the some of the essential points during NCSAM, for Digital Journal, is Raif Mehmet, the VP of EMEA at Bitglass.
In the context of a new focus on personal responsibility, Mehmet says: “In recent years there has been a major shift in the way businesses conduct their operations and how employees do their work. And then in recent months…the shift from office-based to home-based work, combined with a lack of adequate forward planning, has been a painful transition for many. ”
It is also important to consider the shifting landscape under COVID-19, says Mehmet:. This means additional challenges and complications around remote working “Few respondents have said they were fully prepared for remote working when the pandemic hit. From a security perspective the picture is concerning.”
Change of culture means a change to cybersecurity. With this, Mehmet says: “Today, across many organizations, corporate culture has changed dramatically. Many people now access, share, and store data in a variety of ways, using diverse services and devices.”
Going forwards, Mehmet recommends: “With the shift to remote working shaping to be long term, businesses can no longer afford to improvise when it comes to data protection. Organizations must invest time and resources into finding appropriate security solutions that are capable of securing data in a remote environment. There’s a wide range of highly effective products and solutions like cloud access security brokers, and user and entity behavior analytics that can quickly provide visibility and control, no matter how geographically dispersed a workforce is.”
This National Cybersecurity Awareness Month should act as a reminder for organizations to equip themselves with the proper tools to avoid data leakage and other security risks.”
