Cyber Security Awareness Month – It’s Here!

Today marks the kick-off of our special series of Cyber Security Awareness Month blogs dedicated to enhancing cyber-awareness among Canadian organizations and people. The series will do this by shining the spotlight on some key topics, challenges and trends that are particularly relevant in today’s cyber security landscape.

“Cybercrime continues to be the cyber threat that is most likely to affect Canadians and Canadian organizations.”

–National Cyber Threat Assessment 2020, Canadian Centre for Cyber Security

Cybersecurity is both a growing challenge and a global challenge. As the frequency and scale of cyber-attacks and data breaches increase, there is an urgent need to increase cyber-awareness among organizations, government agencies, and even the general public. 

What is Cyber Security Awareness Month?

Thanks to the increasing ubiquity of the Internet and Internet-enabled technologies, businesses, institutions and individuals everywhere have access to more information, products and services, and opportunities to improve their lives. But with such great opportunities also come significant threats. Over the years, the explosive growth in cyber technologies has also expanded the cyber threat landscape. To protect themselves, businesses, governments and individuals must be more aware of cyber threats, crimes and data breaches. Cyber Security Awareness Month is an international initiative that helps individuals and businesses focus on simple and effective preventative measures of safeguarding their data and systems online.

In October, Canada celebrates Cyber Security Awareness Month to increase the public’s awareness of the importance of cyber security and help organizations learn how to protect their critical infrastructure, systems, data, and operations.

Cyber Security Awareness Month at Packetlabs

Packetlabs has always been passionate about educating its audience about cyber threats and cyber security. Our blog is packed with helpful articles about everything from penetration testing, compromise assessment, cyber security risk management, and much more. We also have some excellent resources about PCI compliance testing, application security testing and penetration testing methodology that can be downloaded for free here.

This year, we decided to amp up our awareness efforts with a series of new blogs specifically geared around Cyber Security Awareness Month. Our primary goal is to help Canadian organizations learn more about cybercrime and protect themselves from threat actors.

Blogs for Cyber Security Awareness Month 2021 at Packetlabs

Throughout October 2021, we will publish numerous blogs around four key themes. Each week will tackle one specific theme. These themes are:

1. Statistics

2. Ransomware/Malware

3. Phishing

4. Patching

In Week 1 (October 4-8), we will discuss key statistics and trends around cyber security and cyber threats. Week 2 will focus on zero-day exploits and “cybercrime as a service.” Week 3 (October 18-22) will be all about phishing-related topics, such as password cracking, internal security awareness, pharming, and spear phishing. The last week of Cyber Security Awareness Month at Packetlabs will focus on an essential aspect of organizational cyber security – patching. These blogs will talk about security vulnerabilities, software updates, and the importance of patch updates – especially for remote teams.

Keep watching our blog section for new blogs on these exciting topics to help your organization safeguard its systems. 

Conclusion

Cyber threats are an uncomfortable reality, not only in Canada but all over the world. The only way to stay ahead of threat actors is to beat them at their own game. Preventative action starts with cyber awareness and cyber education. Cyber Security Awareness Month is a wonderful step in the right direction.

The Government of Canada says on its website, “We all play an important role in cyber security.” We couldn’t have said it better! Cybersecurity is everyone’s responsibility, and so is cyber awareness. Do join us in commemorating Cyber Security Awareness Month 2021 and in spreading cyber awareness in your organization, institution, and personal/professional network. And do visit the Packetlabs blog to learn more about cyber threats and how you can protect your organization from them.