Cybersecurity Awareness Month

Cybersecurity Awareness Month begins today for the month of October and this year the campaign aims to emphasise the role each individual plays in online safety and stress the importance of taking proactive steps to enhance cybersecurity at home and in the workplace. (@DeltaNetInt)

Over the last 18 months, it’s been evident that cyber-attacks haven’t slowed down, unfortunately, the opposite has happened. Research from Thales and 451 Research revealed that 47% of businesses saw an increase in the volume, severity, and/or scope of cyber-attacks in the past 12 months. Of those who have ever experienced a breach, 41% happened in the last year, this number has nearly doubled from 21% in 2019, highlighting the severity of the threat posed.

Jason Stirland, CTO at DeltaNet International comments: 

“Cybersecurity Awareness Month is another opportunity for businesses to educate their employees on staying safe and secure online, reducing the likelihood of being attacked. According to research by LastPass, despite 92% of online users recognising that using the same password is a risk, 65% still reuse theirs across accounts, increasing the risk of a data breach. That’s why it’s so important for businesses to train their employees on the importance of using passwords securely as a preliminary line of defence. 

“With cyber-attacks on the rise, it is remarkable how many passwords are compromised simply because they are not strong enough. Strong passwords are hard to guess, include a combination of upper-case letters, lower-case letters, symbols, and numbers, and are different for each account/platform. Unfortunately – often due to the sheer number of passwords required for users online – many people reuse the same password across multiple accounts, making them vulnerable and posing an information security risk, especially if shared with business accounts. To help counter this risk, IT teams should enable mandatory multi-factor authentication on company accounts as an added layer of security.”