October is Cybersecurity Awareness Month

October is Cybersecurity Awareness Month, an annual event designed to raise awareness about the importance of cybersecurity. It encourages individuals, organizations, and businesses to improve their digital safety and security practices. Launched in 2004 by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security in partnership with the National Cyber Security Alliance (NCSA), its primary goal is to ensure that people are informed about the increasing range of cyber threats and to promote proactive steps to safeguard data, systems, and online activities.

KCC's campaign this year will look to continue to foster a culture of cybersecurity, with our focus on educating the College's employees about preventing data breaches, protecting personal information, and adopting strong cybersecurity practices like the use of multi-factor authentication, recognizing phishing and smishing attempts, and using strong passwords.

Throughout the month I'll be sharing tips and tricks to help you raise your cybersecurity awareness skills but I will also share actual data about what we are seeing in the wild related to cyberthreats in higher education, what actions KCC ITS is taking to keep the College's data secure and throw in a few stories about unsuccessful cybersecurity attempts that we have experienced at KCC over the last twelve months. - MO