We live our lives in the digital world, whether we call it the internet, cyberspace, or simply being online. While shopping online, tweeting, or chatting with friends, we imprint our digital selves with every press of a key, click of the mouse, or tap with our fingertips. Every website we visit, article we read, and email we send is an extension of our digitized identity — identities that persist online, whether we’re currently signed in or not. Yet, in almost all cases, a single password — a series of numbers, letters, and special characters strung together — is all that delineates the real us from a stranger seeking to impersonate our identity for nefarious purposes.
Every October marks National Cybersecurity Awareness Month, when we should take a step back to better understand our digital surroundings and reorient ourselves to safer and more secure practices. This year’s national theme of “Own IT, Secure IT, Protect IT,” emphasizes taking personal responsibility and proactive actions to better secure our own digital identities so as to minimize the likelihood of being compromised.
Throughout the month of October, we will be releasing additional newsletters, articles, and security tips on our information security web page. Our goal is to increase your awareness of modern-day cyber threats and highlight the steps you can take to #BeCyberSmart. Security decisions start with you, but ultimately affect all those around you, including ԱƵ.
Join us as we focus on improving the much-maligned usage and understanding of passwords, the primary means of securing our digital identities.Stay tuned and check back often. Please feel free to share your with us. We’d love to hear what your security concerns are, or ideas for what information security at ԱƵ means to you.