National Cyber Security Awareness Month 2010

September 30, 2010 | By Damon Armour, IT Security Officer, contributing writer

 

October is National Cyber Security Awareness Month (NCSAM). During this month, ASU faculty, staff, and students will see an additional focus on information security. Topics will be relevant to both work and home including what you can do to protect your identity and prevent phishing as well as deal with malicious software. Watch for campus emails that contain information security details throughout the month. Also, visit the ASU ITS NCSAM website http://www.aug.edu/its/security/ncsam/ for more details.

What is National Cyber Security Awareness Month?  According to Stay Safe Online:

National Cyber Security Awareness Month (NCSAM), conducted every October since 2004, is a national public awareness campaign to encourage everyone to protect their computers and our nation’s critical cyber infrastructure.

Cyber security requires vigilance 365 days per year. However, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the National Cyber Security Alliance (NCSA), and the Multi-State Information Sharing and Analysis Center (MS-ISAC), the primary drivers of NCSAM, coordinate to shed a brighter light in October on what home users, schools, businesses, and governments need to do in order to protect their computers, children, and data.

The USG Board of Regents will be promoting NCSAM again this year. According to Stan Gatewood, chief information security officer of the University System of Georgia, the system will be participating through:

•    Rock Eagle InfoSec Presentations
•    Three USG InfoSec Wimba Sessions during the Month of October
•    Two externally provided InfoSec sessions—via web (Risk Management + 3  SANS vLive courses)
•    USG InfoSec will provide, via website, NCSAM 2010 materials (posters, flyers, brochures, buttons, calendars…)

More details can be found at: http://www.usg.edu/infosec/awareness_and_training/ncsam_2010/

Also this year, the SANS (SysAdmin, Audit, Network, Security) Institute is offering higher education employees an opportunity to attend three different, free information security presentations online with their vLive! Services.  The courses include Future Trends in Network Security, Securing the Human, and Protecting Your University Data for Executives. The discount code is DG-October. Register for the courses at http://www.sans.org/vlive/cyber-security-awareness/.

In order for National Cyber Security Awareness Month to be a success each year, I ask the campus community to help spread awareness of the importance of cyber security to not only the ASU campus, but to the larger community as a whole. The more educated our populace is on cyber security matters, the safer this generation and future generations will be.  It is a good idea to apply all the good habits acquired at work or home to all aspects of your digital life.

Resources:
Stay Safe Online:
http://staysafeonline.org/

Stay Safe Online—Student Resources (applies to all of us):
http://staysafeonline.org/content/for-students
http://staysafeonline.org/files/HiEd/College%20student%20tip%20list%20to%20dhs%207%2027kmv.pdf