Each one of us can do our part to make sure that our online lives are safe and secure. That's what Cybersecurity Awareness Month is all about! Cybersecurity Awareness Month was created as a collaborative effort to ensure everyone has the resources they need to stay safer and more secure online.

Each October focuses on different themes addressing specific challenges and identifying opportunities. The theme this year is “Do Your Part. #BeCyberSmart.” Everyone can do their part by:

• Implementing stronger security practices
• Raising community awareness 
• Educating vulnerable audiences or training employees

The first three months of 2020 saw a 20 percent increase in cyber fraud as cybercriminals took advantage of the global pandemic. Let’s all do our part and learn about cybersecurity, so that we don’t fall victim to cyber fraud.

It can start at home with creating a great password. Here are some tips:

1. Use a long passphrase
2. Don’t make passwords easy to guess: do not include personal information in your password
3. Avoid using common words in your passwords and substitute letters with numbers
4. Get creative by using phonetic replacements, such as “PH” instead of “F”
5. Keep your passwords on the down-low and don’t tell anyone your passwords
6. Unique account, unique password: have different passwords for various accounts
7. Double your login protection: enable multifactor authentication (MFA) to ensure that the only person who has access to your account is you. 
8. Utilize a password manager to remember all your long passwords

For further information, please visit the tip sheets and resources page provided by the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA).