OHIO community invited to join celebration of Cybersecurity Awareness Month

For 20 years, the President of the United States and Congress have proclaimed October to be Cybersecurity Awareness Month. Every October, Ohio University, along with thousands of other organizations, participates in Cybersecurity Awareness Month activities to champion safer and more secure online practices.

Each year, the Ohio University Information Security Office works to raise awareness through activities such as cybersecurity competitions, a Cybersecurity Awareness Conference, and various awareness articles to increase the university’s cybersecurity knowledge. 

For a fun new twist to this year’s activities, OHIO students, faculty, and staff can test their cybersecurity knowledge and help OHIO beat Miami University by competing in CyberMania.

Complete the survey and be entered to win a prize pack from OHIO's Information Security Office. 

All faculty and staff are also encouraged to complete the Online IT Security training, if they have not done so already. University departments that have the highest rate of completion at the end of October will be recognized as Cybersecurity Champions and the winning department will receive a cookie party courtesy of the Information Security Office.

Finally, as an ongoing effort to #BeCyberSmart, the Information Security Office will promote different key behaviors via a weekly awareness article throughout the month of October that can help every Bobcat protect their online lives.

To begin its efforts to #BeCyberSmart, here is information on Multi-factor Authentication, also commonly called MFA. MFA adds a second layer of security to your online accounts by requiring an additional verification step after you provide your correct username and password. MFA is required to access your OHIO accounts, but you can often add it to your personal accounts as well. Enabling MFA is an easy way to protect your accounts and personal information. In fact, according to the National

Cybersecurity Alliance, 99.9 percent of account hacks could have been prevented by using MFA. Explore MFA resources from OIT, including guidance on how using MFA can easily save your paycheck.

Stay tuned for more tips and activities as we progress through October and Cyber Security Awareness Month.