MathCraft Celebrates Cybersecurity Awareness Month
Each year in October, the Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) and National Cybersecurity Alliance (NCA) team up to promote cyber awareness for a wide range of industry topics in what’s known as Cybersecurity Awareness Month. During this time, cybersecurity training, marketing ads, and events take place to provide education on today’s threats, solutions, and even job opportunities within the industry.
Awareness Month is an excellent time for businesses and citizens to get involved and become more knowledgeable on this ever-evolving, complex subject. In addition to the valuable resources offered, the annual campaign focuses on a specific priority regarding online safety, security hygiene, and data protection against cyber risks.
This year, the theme is “See Yourself in Cyber,” an interesting concept with plenty of interpretations and implications for all stakeholders. So what exactly does the theme mean, and how does it affect those in the industrial security world?
“See Yourself in Cyber” from All Perspectives
“See yourself in cyber” implies that everyone has a role in the fight and mitigation against cybersecurity threats. Whether you’re a computer security and infrastructure management professional, a company employee, or just an individual with internet access, everyone has a stake in their personal, organizational, and national data security.
Keep in mind that just one mistake can have consequential impacts on others. Consider the scenario in which someone working for a business clicks a phishing email link and submits their credentials to a web page they thought was legitimate. That could cause a ripple effect in which unauthorized individuals access their online accounts, and any company, customer, or supplier data stored in that system is now compromised.
It’s why as part of this year’s theme, CISA and NCA are encouraging all Americans to “See Yourself” taking action by utilizing cybersecurity training and using cyber smart practices for online safety. This includes keeping software applications up to date, avoiding suspicious websites or links, employing solid password management, reporting potential phishing scams, and enabling multi-factor authentication (MFA) on all accounts when possible.
Next, they’d like you in the workforce to “See Yourself” in the cybersecurity industry. There’s currently a massive demand for entry-level and experienced cyber professionals in many areas that must get filled as part of our nation’s fight. Lastly, the Cybersecurity Awareness campaign has specifically indicated the role of you, industry leaders, in the theme. You must “See Yourself” as part of the solution by partnering with others in the industry through data-sharing initiatives, operational collaboration, and creating secure-by-design products for consumers and businesses.
This Year’s Theme and the Facility Security Officer
All of you Facility Security Officers (FSOs) are by no means excluded from this year’s theme. Like other Americans, you use online applications to manage and secure your facility, surf the web, and handle sensitive data that often requires clearance. Every day, you’re forced to “see yourself in cyber” by utilizing best security practices within your operation and adhering to complex cybersecurity compliance requirements.
You may also be in a position to hire or recruit personnel within the defense contracting, industrial security, or cybersecurity industry. This will allow you to “see yourself in cyber” on a broader level that helps fill in the personnel gap for security positions.
“See Yourself” Collaborating
FSOs can continue to do their part in the fight against cybercrime by developing and maintaining robust security programs for their organization. Of course, this requires thorough communication and collaboration with other departments. For instance, you may need to coordinate with a DevOps team to ensure that an internal software program meets compliance requirements and that specific modules are only accessible by your cleared personnel.
Alternatively, it would help if you kept information-security teams in the loop on where specific data and resources are physically stored to help them maintain network visibility and segmentation. As you deploy new security tools and processes, IT management personnel may need to be involved in cataloging new technology assets or users.
All in all, FSOs have to understand the relevance of their position in the cybersecurity realm. From enforcing best practices, employing a skilled workforce, and staying compliant to working with other teams in your organization, you play a vital role in this year’s Cybersecurity Awareness Month theme. You must “see yourself in cyber” similarly to ordinary citizens and cyber industry practitioners.
Practice “Seeing Yourself in Cyber” with MathCraft Technologies
MathCraft is proud to celebrate and support this year’s theme for Cybersecurity Awareness Month. By offering technology solutions like Access, Portal, and ViSi Commander, we enable facility security teams to oversee and report on all parts of their security operation with ease.
Our system can be hosted in Microsoft 365 Government Community Cloud High (GCC High), enabling easy compliance with FedRAMP. At the same time, our platform helps FSOs adhere to SEAD 3, Department of Defense (DoD), and National Industrial Security Program Operating Manual (NISPOM) requirements.
Contact us today to learn more about how our suite of access, visitor, and portal management software can help you “see yourself in cyber” with automation technology that streamlines and organizes industrial-security operations and compliance tasks.