Cybersecurity Awareness Month 2024 starts today, and, as always, it’s a great time to take a look at your organization’s cyber practices.

Cybersecurity Awareness Month was launched by the National Cybersecurity Alliance (NCA) and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) in October 2004 as a broad effort to help all Americans stay safer and more secure online, so it’s in its 21st year! It’s now co-led by the NCA and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Agency (CISA), which was established within DHS in 2018.

Starting in 2023 with the launch of CISA’s cybersecurity awareness program, Secure Our World is the enduring Cybersecurity Awareness Month theme. This theme recognizes the importance of taking daily action to reduce risks when online and using connected to devices. Organizations can use the Secure Our World theme when planning for this and future Cybersecurity Awareness Month campaigns.

Again, this year, they are focusing on “four simple steps we can take to stay safe online at home, work and school”, which are:

• Use Strong Passwords
• Turn On MFA (Multi-Factor Authentication)
• Recognize & Report Phishing
• Update Software

CISA and the NCA have partnered to provide a 2024 Toolkit Guide that includes key messages, fast facts, a social media guide, a sample email announcement and more! Here are the fast facts from the National Cybersecurity Alliance 2023 Oh Behave! report:

• 84% of people considered online safety a priority
• Only 38% of people use unique passwords for all their accounts
• About a third of respondents began using a password manager after receiving cyber training
• 79% of respondents were familiar with multifactor authentication.
  • 70% of those who have heard of MFA security measure know how to use it
• Only 36% of people always install software updates when they become available
• 69% of people express confidence in their ability to identify phishing attempts
  • 51% of Americans actively report cybercrimes, particularly instances of phishing.

Even though today is the beginning of the month, the kick-off for Cybersecurity Awareness Month 2024 doesn’t happen until tomorrow at 2pm ET (yeah, I don’t understand it either). 😉 Regardless, you can register to join the 90-minute kick-off webinar here!

I’ll have more to come in recognition of Cybersecurity Awareness Month 2024. Even though eDiscovery Today is considered an eDiscovery blog, we have published 551 posts related to cybersecurity in less than 4 1/2 years! Cybersecurity, data privacy, information governance, artificial intelligence and eDiscovery are all intertwined these days. 🙂

So, what do you think? How would you gauge your organization’s cybersecurity awareness? Please share any comments you might have or if you’d like to know more about a particular topic.

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