Cybersecurity Awareness Month

Cybersecurity Awareness Month 2022 Theme

 

Since 2004, the President of the United States and Congress have declared October to be Cybersecurity Awareness Month, helping individuals protect themselves online as threats to technology and confidential data become more commonplace. The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) and the National Cybersecurity Alliance (NCA) lead a collaborative effort between government and industry to raise cybersecurity awareness nationally and internationally. 

Cybersecurity Awareness Month Theme

See Yourself in Cyber

This year’s campaign theme — “See Yourself in Cyber” — demonstrates that while cybersecurity may seem like a complex subject, ultimately, it’s really all about people . This October will focus on the “people” part of cybersecurity, providing information and resources to help educate CISA partners and the public, and ensure all individuals and organizations make smart decisions whether on the job, at home or at school – now and in the future. We encourage each of you to engage in this year’s efforts by creating your own cyber awareness campaigns and sharing this messaging with your peers.

  • For individuals and families, we encourage you to See Yourself taking action to stay safe online. That means enabling basic cyber hygiene practices: update your software, think before you click, have good strong passwords or a password keeper, and enable multi-factor authentication (meaning you need "More Than A Password!") on all your sensitive accounts. 
  • For those considering joining the cyber community, we encourage you to See Yourself joining the cyber workforce. We'll be talking with leaders from across the country about how we can build a cybersecurity workforce that is bigger, more diverse and dedicated to solving the problems that will help keep the American people safe. 
  • For our partners in industry, we encourage you to See Yourself as part of the solution. That means putting operational collaboration into practice, working together to share information in real-time, and reducing risk and build resilience from the start to protect America's critical infrastructure and the systems that Americans rely on every day. 

4 Things You Can Do

Throughout October, CISA and NCA will highlight key action steps that everyone should take:

  • Think Before You Click: Recognize and Report Phishing: If a link looks a little off, think before you click. It could be an attempt to get sensitive information or install malware. 
  • Update Your Software: Don't delay -- If you see a software update notification, act promptly. Better yet, turn on automatic updates.
  • Use Strong Passwords: Use passwords that are long, unique, and randomly generated. Use password managers to generate and remember different, complex passwords for each of your accounts. A passwords manager will encrypt passwords securing them for you!
  • Enable Multi-Factor Authentication: You need more than a password to protect your online accounts, and enabling MFA makes you significantly less likely to get hacked.

Cybersecurity Career Awareness Week

Cybersecurity Career Awareness Week is a week-long campaign in the middle of Cybersecurity Awareness Month focused on raising awareness around cybersecurity job opportunities and how building a cyber workforce enhances our nation's security.  Hosted by National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), this week runs from October 17-22 this year.

CISA focuses on building a cyber aware public and introducing them to cyber careers from an early age. We do this through a variety of training programs for educators, the federal cyber workforce and critical infrastructure operators, as well as non-traditional training opportunities to help bring skilled professionals into the workforce quicker than traditional pathways. With these resources, CISA strives to reach those who may not have access to training in underserved communities. 

CISA’s supporting resources for Cybersecurity Career Awareness Week:  

Cybersecurity Awareness Month 2022 Public Toolkit

The CISA team encourages you to celebrate Cybersecurity Awareness Month with us throughout October. This toolkit is designed to help you provide your organization with the tools and resources to learn the basics of cybersecurity. It contains information about the national campaign in October as well as resources for getting the word out. You are encouraged to use any resource in this toolkit.  

Cybersecurity Awareness Month Presentations

Help us educate Americans on cybersecurity with resources and valuable information to stay safe and secure online, at work and at home. These presentations will help you understand the campaign and provide resources and tools you can use for your own campaign.

How You Can Participate 

Join us for a wide variety of activities and learning opportunities throughout October to learn cyber basics. There will also be a series of web events and tools you can use. We encourage you to explore our Cybersecurity Awareness Month page and check back for updates.

To support your efforts, you can: 

Interested in becoming a partner?

For more information, and to become a Cybersecurity Awareness Month partner email us at Cyberawareness@cisa.dhs.gov. 

Note: CISA is committed to providing access to our web pages and documents for individuals with disabilities, both members of the public and federal employees. If the format of any elements or content within this document interferes with your ability to access the information, as defined in the Rehabilitation Act, please email Cyberawareness@cisa.dhs.gov. To enable us to respond in a manner most helpful to you, please indicate the nature of your accessibility problem and the preferred format in which to receive the material.

Thank you for your support and commitment to Cybersecurity Awareness Month and helping all everyone stay safe and secure online. Please email the CISA Team with any questions. Please direct media inquiries to CISAMedia@cisa.dhs.gov.

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