Although not an official part of the holiday season, that President Obama has declared October to be National Cyber Security Awareness Month is a good thing. If people can take an awareness of cyber security and turn it into positive actions, maybe the good guys can win the war for the Internet.
From the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) website, we find, “We now live in a world that is more connected than ever before. The Internet touches almost all aspects of everyone’s daily life, whether we realize it or not. Recognizing the importance of cybersecurity to our nation, President Obama designated October as National Cyber Security Awareness Month. National Cyber Security Awareness Month is designed to engage and educate public and private sector partners through events and initiatives with the goal of raising awareness about cybersecurity and increasing the resiliency of the nation in the event of a cyber incident.”
Getting beyond clichéd platitudes and disseminating practical knowledge about Internet safety and security is a challenge government wonks still struggle with, though. If you are looking for information you can actually use to keep yourself, your family and your business safer, avoid the horribly-organized, amateurish Cyber Security Awareness Month section of the DHS website; that is, unless you enjoy spending time watching slickly-made cartoon-like videos seemingly aimed at five-year olds. I wonder how much money was spent hiring the talking thumbs (yes, real people’s fingers with little faces drawn on) that star in DHS’s flagship “Stop.Think.Connect” videos.
The StaySafeOnline.org/ncsam website is just the opposite of DHS’s offering. Logical in its layout and comprehensive in its approach, there’s something here for everyone. I suggest taking a look at the Cyber Security Awareness Resources page and checking out the Quizzes and Games Section found at the bottom. The Studies section is good, too, full of interesting and informative figures and statistics about the Internet and how we use it. If I could choose only one Cyber Security Awareness Month-themed website, it would be this one.
After some Cyber Security education, check out the security testing tools at www.auditmypc.com. Here, you can test your computer’s firewall, see what your “digital footprint” is and test your Internet speed. Make sure you have Java updated, as some of the tools depend on it. Be careful not to accidentally “update” your browser’s setting when doing the update; read the update screens thoroughly before proceeding. You’re getting those Java updates, anyway, though, right?
Cyber security awareness and education is vital to your well-being. Keep reading this column and I will show you how you can become the best cyber-safe citizen you can be.