Welcome to the first week of National Cyber Security Awareness Month (NCSAM). This week, we focus on how you can “Be Cyber Smart” by better protecting yourself in cyberspace and taking proactive steps to enhance your security online. At a time when we are more connected than ever, being “cyber smart” is of the utmost importance.

Helpful Tips:

The following CUNY resources will help keep you safe:

You can find the following tip sheets on the National Cyber Security Awareness Month Publications site:

  • Make a long and unique passphrase for all accounts
  • Enable multi-factor authentication wherever possible
  • Use a password manager
  • Update software as soon as updates are available
  • Keep backup copies of your data, both on and offsite

Facts and Figures:

  • 61% of data breaches used compromised credentials. (Verizon Data Breach Investigations Report)
  • 56% of IT leaders believe their employees have picked up bad cyber security behaviors since working from home. (Tessian)
  • More than 99.9% of Microsoft enterprise accounts that get invaded by attackers didn’t use multi-factor authentication. (ZDNet)

Our weekly emails and supporting information are available from the National Cyber Security Awareness Month page on the CUNY Website. We also provide a growing security resources list on the CUNY Information Security pages. You may also want to subscribe to OUCH! — the world’s leading, free security awareness newsletter designed for technology users.

If you have any questions about any of this information, please contact your college’s Information Security Manager.

By Patricia Kahn