Main Corporations Honoring Cybersecurity Consciousness Month

COMMENTARY

Cybersecurity Consciousness Month, an annual initiative since 2004, offers organizations every October with helpful alternatives to strengthen safety greatest practices amongst staff. As we interact in these actions this month, it is also a possibility to find methods to construct a tradition of safety the place staff perceive how their each day choices and actions can have an effect on a corporation’s general safety.  

Staff stay each group’s greatest first line of protection. Making essentially the most safe approach of doing issues the best approach helps inspire staff to make security-first choices. For instance, getting staff to make use of multifactor authentication (MFA) — as soon as once more a prime suggestion of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Safety Company (CISA) and the Nationwide Cybersecurity Alliance (NSA) — is among the easiest and simplest methods to boost safety. Fifteen years in the past, when AWS made MFA publicly accessible, we knew the criticality of utilizing MFA would solely enhance as know-how quickly advanced and the cloud ushered in a brand new period of enterprise transformation.  

At AWS, Cybersecurity Consciousness Month can also be a possibility to foster inner cross-team collaboration and studying amongst staff — whether or not “safety” is formally of their title or not. Throughout Amazon’s annual Safety Week in October, staff will be taught on-line and bodily safety greatest practices, the right way to simply report a safety matter, correct ID badge utilization, machine safety, and the right way to opt-in for emergency messaging.  

We’re additionally internet hosting our fourth annual One Amazon Safety Convention, bringing our safety groups from throughout the corporate collectively for 2 days in October to attach, collaborate, and amplify information sharing and ability improvement. By means of quite a lot of programming, together with actions to boost sensible safety abilities, breakout classes masking safety improvements and greatest practices, and displays from consultants and Amazon safety leaders, staff will study our efforts to enhance safety, each internally and for our clients.  

Mark Hughes, International Managing Associate Cybersecurity Providers, IBM Consulting 

At IBM, we’re dedicated to educating and empowering our groups and purchasers with the information and instruments they should keep safe. As progressive new options assist advance in the present day’s companies, we additionally perceive the complexity of addressing new cybersecurity threats and advocate to our purchasers the significance of proactively embedding safety into all facets of their enterprise. 

Cybersecurity Consciousness Month offers a possibility for IBM to drive consciousness, spotlight our safety experience, and have interaction our world group across the necessary function of cybersecurity. We’re kicking October off with our “Cloud Menace Panorama” report that may study cloud threats and spotlight how firms can assess and deal with their dangers in areas reminiscent of identification entry administration and information safety. All through the month, we’ll showcase these findings, alongside key takeaways from our latest “Price of a Information Breach” report, via a sequence of digital content material, together with expert-led discussions and security-themed insights, equipping our consultants with the methods wanted to assist purchasers deal with rising cloud threats and successfully undertake automation and generative AI (GenAI) to strengthen their safety. 

Whereas IBM educates our staff year-round, Cybersecurity Consciousness Month permits us to accentuate our concentrate on security-based abilities coaching for our consultants whereas empowering them to get safety business certifications to assist present steerage to our purchasers on architectures and applied sciences that may assist them keep forward of assaults. 

By creating a corporation with a security-first mindset, and leveraging the capabilities of the cloud, automation, and GenAI, IBM educates our staff, informs our purchasers, and evokes new approaches to cybersecurity — like quantum-safe requirements — to strengthen our dedication to a safe digital future. 

Atticus Tysen, Chief Info Safety Officer, Intuit  

This yr, our theme for Cybersecurity Consciousness Month is Cyber Wellness, specializing in the significance of sustaining digital well being alongside bodily well-being. We’re utilizing this theme to spotlight that defending our digital lives is an ongoing accountability, like taking care of our bodily well being. By means of this theme, we intention to foster a tradition of steady cybersecurity consciousness, encouraging staff to take proactive steps in safeguarding themselves and Intuit. 

As a part of our Cybersecurity Consciousness Month program, our chief monetary officer (CFO), Sandeep Aujla, and our basic counsel, Kerry McLean, will be part of me in a gap keynote, sharing why cybersecurity is vital to our firm’s general success. Along with basic classes for all staff, we have crafted focused classes for teams recognized as being extra liable to social engineering, primarily based on months of phishing simulation information. This centered method permits us to immediately deal with the wants of particular teams. 

Josh Blackwelder, Deputy Chief Info Safety Officer, SentinelOne  

SentinelOne lives and breathes safety, all day, daily. And whereas our mission — Safe Tomorrow — is most frequently centered on a promise and dedication to our clients, it extends far past the enterprise targets of the corporate to securing our teammates, communities, and democracy, as entire. We see Cybersecurity Consciousness Month as a option to carry our experience into our communities — serving to to create future generations of cyber-aware residents whereas increasing the following technology of cyber defenders.  

For Cybersecurity Consciousness Month, SentinelOne focuses on its CyberSafe College program, an in-school program that targets youngsters in grades Ok-12 and is designed to introduce the idea of cybersecurity in age- and activity-appropriate methods.  

This system offers a spread of ways in which youngsters can take into consideration their on-line actions and privateness. For youthful elementary college students, we concentrate on important abilities for safeguarding private information on-line. For center schoolers, we concentrate on one of the best practices to retain cybersecurity security, together with the significance of multifactor authentication. For older college students, we additionally embrace data on the right way to pursue a profession in cybersecurity, what to main in, and main college packages across the globe.  

Over the previous two years, this huge volunteer effort has delivered wonderful outcomes — over 100 International SentinelOne Worker Ambassadors had been in a position to attain greater than 12,000 college students, in over 40 faculties, in eight nations. 

Raul Sanchez, Director of Info Safety, Gallo 

Gallo acknowledges Cyber Consciousness Month with a sequence of partaking, instructional initiatives geared toward enhancing the cyber resilience of its workforce. The spotlight is the annual Cybersecurity Consciousness Day occasion, held at company headquarters. This occasion options keynote audio system and illustration from our safety companions, providing insights into the newest cyber threats and greatest practices. Designed to be enjoyable and academic, the occasion offers staff with hands-on experiences and sensible information to raised defend the group and its information. Including a twist, the occasion additionally features a 5 kilometer run/stroll, permitting staff to earn factors within the firm’s well being and wellness program whereas selling bodily health alongside cyber health.  

Along with the attention day occasion, Gallo hosts weekly cybersecurity webinars all through October. These classes cowl a spread of subjects, from phishing prevention to safe password administration, and are designed to teach staff on the right way to acknowledge and reply to potential threats. The webinars are properly obtained, providing staff the flexibleness to take part and be taught at their very own tempo.  

To maintain cybersecurity prime of thoughts, the data safety division additionally publishes each day safety suggestions for all Gallo staff. The following tips present sensible recommendation and actionable steps staff can take to enhance their private {and professional} cybersecurity practices. By integrating these each day reminders into the workday, Gallo ensures that cybersecurity stays a precedence all through the month, resulting in a extra ready and vigilant workforce.  

In regards to the Contributors

Mark Hughes is the worldwide managing associate of IBM Consulting Cybersecurity Providers and leads IBM’s crew of hundreds of consultants in serving to organizations rework safety right into a enterprise enabler and set up cyber resiliency. His function spans the gross sales and companies supply of risk detection and response, information safety, cloud safety, IAM, infrastructure, threat administration and ecosystem partnerships. Mark’s cybersecurity profession spans throughout twenty years, together with latest roles as president of safety at DXC Know-how, a Fortune 500 world know-how companies supplier, and chief govt at BT Safety, a number one world telecommunications supplier.  

As senior vice chairman and chief data safety officer (CISO) of Intuit, Atticus Tysen is answerable for data safety, fraud prevention, and enterprise data know-how. Earlier than assuming this expanded function, Tysen served as chief data officer (CIO) for almost 10 years. Previous to that, Tysen was vice chairman of product improvement for Intuit’s Monetary Administration Options group, main product improvement efforts for the corporate’s Small Enterprise division. Since becoming a member of Intuit in 2002, he has additionally served as director of latest know-how and led the corporate’s patent program, constructing a course of to guard the corporate’s mental property. Tysen earned a bachelor’s diploma in laptop science from Stanford College. 

Josh Blackwelder has been on the forefront of enhancing safety operations at SentinelOne since early 2022. His management extends throughout cloud safety engineering, safety operations, FedRAMP, safety engineering, vendor threat, safety structure, and utility safety. Earlier than becoming a member of SentinelOne, Josh held safety management positions at Instructer (makers of the training administration software program Canvas), in addition to Adobe, RBS Markets & Worldwide Banking, and Verizon Enterprise. 

Raul Sanchez, director of knowledge safety of Gallo, is a seasoned safety skilled with in depth expertise in all aspects of IT compliance, privateness, vendor threat administration, safety design and structure, regulatory audits, and managing the safety of mergers and acquisitions. Lately, he has centered on implementing fashionable cybersecurity initiatives and enhancing cyber resilience to raised defend towards evolving threats. His capacity to ascertain significant relationships with enterprise groups permits the efficient execution of enterprise initiatives whereas making certain the safety of buyer and company information and sustaining the corporate’s optimistic model popularity.