That’s why Cybersecurity Awareness Month – designated every October for the last 18 years – is an important reminder of just how critical cybersecurity awareness is at all levels of government and across every industry.

The best way to protect your organization and yourself is by being able to recognize potential cyber threats, understand their significance, and sharing that knowledge with others. The weakest link in many cybersecurity programs is people. They make mistakes, it’s bound to happen. But if you can raise your end users’ awareness about cybersecurity across all of the platforms and devices they use, it can drastically reduce the likelihood of a mistake happening. Even more important – when a mistake does happen and you have a strong cybersecurity posture, people recognize it and know how to respond.

Week 1: Be Cyber Smart

Knowing and sharing the cybersecurity basics is the foundation for any good awareness program. Knowledge is power, and that power should be shared. To be cyber smart you should assess your posture, implement a defense in depth strategy, ensure strong password and access management practices, patch regularly, and continually educate yourself and others in your organization.

Week 2: Fight he Phish!

Phishing is one of the most common ways that bad actors attack organizations, because it’s an easy and simple way to get in front of users. Fight back by implementing solutions that block phishing emails and educating users to identify those that would otherwise get through your defenses. Users who can quickly identify and report phishing emails can help tip the scales in your favor. The more people you have fighting phishing attacks, the stronger your organization’s cybersecurity posture will be. Learn more about how to prevent email compromise here.

Week 3: Explore, Experience, Share

The third week of October is Cybersecurity Career Awareness Week! The world of cybersecurity and the threat landscape is ever-changing, and that presents outstanding career opportunities for people who want to apply their skills and passion to this growing area. Week 3 is all about inspiring and promoting awareness and encouraging people to explore careers in cybersecurity by calling attention to the contributions they can make to our society and our economy in doing so.

The National Initiative for Cybersecurity Education (NICE) has put together some resources to help you learn more about career paths in cybersecurity.

Week 4: Cybersecurity First

Being online and connected is part of our everyday lives – from work, to shopping, to entertainment. So, we also need to make sure cybersecurity is at the forefront of our minds every day. If you’re sharing information online, you should take a couple of seconds to validate that the receiver is a trusted source ad is applying cyber best practices. Likewise, if you’re receiving information, you should make sure you’re doing everything possible to protect it from bad actors. Cybersecurity should be the first and last thing we consider when interacting with the digital environment.