History
Since its inception in 2004 Cybersecurity Awareness Month has had one main goal: making Americans safer and more secure online. Launched as a collaborative effort by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the National Cyber Security Alliance (NCSA) C.A.M strives to increase the importance of cybersecurity across our Nation, attempting to ensure that as many Americans have the resources needed in order to practice their own cyber hygiene at home, or in a corporate environment.
Now, 16 years later Cybersecurity Awareness Month has grown into somewhat of a grassroots campaign, with massive efforts being led by the participation of many large companies in the industry, as well as government agencies all in an attempt to engage their customers, employees, college campuses, and the general public with the idea that every digital user should have some idea of how to be safe and secure while using the Internet.
169 million personal records from financial, business, education, healthcare, and public sectors were exposed in 2015
If You Connect It, Protect It
In order to keep yourself safe online, any device that you are using in order to access content from the Internet needs to be protected. This can be as simple as keeping the device up to date with the current software updates available, knowing exactly what it is that you are trying to access online, or ensuring that you are using strong password for every online account.
In order to understand how important Cybersecurity Awareness is, you must first understand that you are a target, you have something that online criminals want, whether it be personal/private information in the form of your date of birth, your mother’s maiden name, or even your healthcare records and credit/debit card information. Threat actors will attempt to use this data in order to try and steal something from you or break into your accounts.
