How to Promote (And Celebrate) Cybersecurity Awareness Month

These days, virtually anyone online today is concerned with cybersecurity whether they want to be or not.

Breaches are occurring more frequently as organizations suffer the exploits of ceaseless threat actors motivated by what they can gain from compromised data.

Fortinet’s 2023 Cybersecurity Skills Gap Report shows data breaches jumped 80% from 2021 to 2022, with 84% of survey respondents incurring at least one incident. Further, the number of organizations experiencing five or more jumped by more than 50% during the same time period.

Threats and breaches aren’t only becoming more frequent, but more costly too. IBM’s Cost of a Data Breach Report shows the average breach costs businesses $4.45 million. That’s at an all-time high.

Three-quarters of breaches are due to a human element, Verizon reports, meaning that a lack of awareness or skills play a role in risk. Fortinet’s report shows nearly 70% of organizations face additional risks because of the skills gap in cybersecurity, with most struggling to hire professionals — particularly in cloud security and security operations.

As a result of breaches, most boards of directors want to increase headcount, while businesses are increasing their investments in everything from operations to employee training.

That’s good news as awareness and consideration of cybersecurity best practices — like not sharing or reusing passwords — have become an imperative for virtually everyone online today. It’s because threats come from all over: unsuspecting employees, highly sophisticated social engineering tactics, you name it.

All of this fuels the importance of Cybersecurity Awareness Month.

Since its inception, the monthlong awareness campaign has become an international phenomenon led by the National Cybersecurity Alliance and U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to equip people and organizations with the resources they need to secure their data online and prevent cyber-attacks.

This month, you can take part and improve your skill with new resources from Skillsoft. Dive in here:

Skillsoft’s 2023 Cybersecurity Awareness Report dives into training consumption data to spot and analyze trends. Read this year’s report to understand why some organizations have taken a stronger stance on security and how it’s impacting them — and learn which industries may be at greater risk of falling behind.

Covered in the report:

• Cybersecurity training trends and the impacts
• The most popular cybersecurity topics and courses
• Which industries and regions are prioritizing training

Employee upskilling is crucial to strengthen the organization’s security posture. Join experts from Skillsoft and Security Innovation to explore the cybersecurity landscape, the importance of training, and ways to effectively ward off threats.

In this session, attendees will learn how to create a strong framework for both ethics and cybersecurity, develop effective training programs, and more.

Speakers:

• Colleen Rudisill, Head of Strategic Alliances & Partnerships, Security Innovation
• Okey Obudulu, Chief Information Security Officer, Skillsoft
• Asha J. Palmer, SVP Compliance Solutions, Skillsoft
• Mike Hendrickson, VP of Product, Skillsoft

Cybersecurity professionals must keep their skills current and remain vigilant in order to ward off threats. This demands constant learning. In 2023, cybersecurity professionals rated 10 courses at Skillsoft among the best they’ve taken. See what they are in this blog post.

Cyber Essentials Plus is a government-backed certification promoting cybersecurity practices. Skillsoft earned this by passing a stringent assessment by a certified auditor, involving an extensive review of their IT security and policies.

In the announcement, Skillsoft’s CISO says: “Skillsoft’s commitment to cybersecurity and to bolstering the safety and integrity of our digital infrastructure is ongoing. This certification is a demonstration of that commitment, and we are proud of the work we have done to maintain our security posture and uphold a secure environment for our organization and customers.”

• How Security Analysts and Hackers Use Generative AI
• Why Every Full Stack Developer Needs Cybersecurity Skills
• How Much Can I Earn with a Security+ Certification?
• The Highest Paying Cybersecurity Certifications
• The Highest Paying Cloud Certifications — Which Involve Security?