Celebrating National Cybersecurity Awareness Month in the Cloud

Among other things, October is National Cybersecurity Awareness Month, a month designated by the Department of Homeland Security and other government agencies as a month to teach individuals and businesses about the importance of cybersecurity and discuss opportunities to prevent breaches of personal and business devices. Today, we would like to talk about the month and discuss one very specific way organizations can improve their cybersecurity. Learn more below.

National Cybersecurity Awareness Month

October is National Cyber Security Awareness Month which is an annual campaign to raise awareness about the importance of cybersecurity. The Internet touches almost all aspects of everyone’s daily life, whether we realize it or not. National Cyber Security Awareness Month (NCSAM) is designed to engage and educate public and private sector partners through events and initiatives to raise awareness about the importance of cybersecurity, provide them with tools and resources needed to stay safe online, and increase the resiliency of the Nation in the event of a cyber incident.

The month, which is designed to help everyone learn about the importance of cybersecurity in business and personal life, features five different weeks of events and learning, each focused on a different theme:

• Week 1: October 2-6 – Theme: Simple Steps to Online Safety
• Week 2: October 9-13 – Theme: Cybersecurity in the Workplace is Everyone’s Business
• Week 3: October 16-20 – Theme: Today’s Predictions for Tomorrow’s Internet
• Week 4: October 23-27 – Theme: The Internet Wants YOU: Consider a Career in Cybersecurity
• Week 5: October 30-31 – Theme: Protecting Critical Infrastructure from Cyber Threats

You can view each of the themes in detail at the Department of Homeland Security website.

One Way to Embrace Cybersecurity: Embrace the Cloud

While there is a lot that needs to be done in order to improve cybersecurity at an organization, one of the easier ways to lock down your data is to embrace the cloud. There are many reasons for this:

• Economies of Scale: By pooling resources, small businesses get better security than they could otherwise afford (i.e. you get more than you pay for)
• A Business Model That Relies on the Trust of Its Customers: Cloud vendors rarely if ever survive data breaches. This means that they are hiring their own groups of white hat hackers to try breaching systems, fixing weaknesses immediately, and continually investing money into improving security.
• Not Forgetting the Basics: It should go without saying, cloud vendors do the basics right, too. From bank-level encryption to employing armed guards at data facilities, cloud vendors are making sure all the bases are covered.

Of course, the vendor isn’t completely responsible, and there are user-side issues that need to be tackled, such as avoiding phishing schemes and the like, but vendors like Sage Intacct have worked to mitigate the risks that exist by utilizing IP tracking and blocking, forcing password updates, and mandating two-factor authentication—all to minimize the risk of human error on the end user side.

There are many more ways that cloud vendors work to provide highly secure solutions to business customers, including only working with other highly secure cloud vendors, but these are just a few ways that you can improve cybersecurity by leveraging a cloud solution. Get to know Sage Intacct here, and learn more about receiving a free 30-day trial, courtesy of rinehimerbaker.