Cybersecurity Awareness Month Checklist

OCTOBER IS CYBERSECURITY AWARENESS MONTH If you start using a Cybersecurity Checklist right away, there’s no doubt that you’ll drastically improve your online security and privacy. The fact is, most people who go online daily fall into one of these categories: Maybe you fall into one or more of those categories. If so, you might be the lucky one who manages to avoid an online problem or attack—or you could be like the millions of people who every year lose money, personal information, and a sense of security because of online attacks. Personal and business cybersecurity is so vital that the United States designates every October as Cybersecurity Awareness Month . This campaign aims to raise awareness of online threats and provide guidance on how to avoid them. At a minimum, it ensures that businesses and consumers focus on the real dangers that exist online at least once a year and take steps to minimize their risk profile. You might think you’re in a safe place today, but you might actually be on the verge of an online attack. The 10 points on the cybersecurity checklist are designed to help prevent online threats from reaching, fooling, or stealing from you. Isn’t it better to be safe than sorry? Let’s look at a few of the points from the checklist and see how they can protect you from running into harm online. Implementing the cybersecurity checklist helps you shore up your defenses before an attack occurs, not after it happens. It is preventative, not reactive. Research has shown that, despite consumers and companies having a strong line of defense, the weakest links in the security process are human beings. Scammers and fraudsters are aware of this: That’s why it’s essential to incorporate scam awareness into the cybersecurity checklist. More than knowing about the types of scams that exist, it’s also important to know why people fall for scams—even those who think they’d never be a victim. Fraudsters are experts at manipulation, and they exploit our emotions to trick us. It has nothing to do with age or education—the simple fact is, our emotions can betray us. If the right scam comes your way, your vulnerability goes way up, without you even realizing it. Read our article on how your emotions can betray you . Increasing your awareness of scams and fraudsters will help you spot a trap and avoid becoming a victim. For more valuable resources, visit our Learning Center, where you can find articles and podcast episodes .