The Cybersecurity Tech Accord is excited to join with governments and organizations around the world in celebrating October as “Cybersecurity Awareness Month” and encourages nations everywhere to lend their support in recognizing the month as well. Modern technology, and the connectivity it facilitates between nations and peoples from across the globe, allows for an exchange of ideas and culture unprecedented in human history. This same connectivity also binds us all together in a collective effort to protect and defend the integrity and security of the public Internet. Everyone who uses networked technologies – from large organizations down to individual users – has a responsibility to be aware of cyber risk and to understand how to keep themselves and others safe online.
Facilitating this kind of cyber awareness requires leadership from governments as well as the technology industry, which has a responsibility to help protect its users and customers in cyberspace. This October, the Cybersecurity Tech Accord is proud to be supporting the work of the UK’s Foreign & Commonwealth Office (FCO) in promoting cybersecurity awareness throughout the 53-member Commonwealth of Nations. Today, we are releasing a draft report for comment – Cybersecurity Awareness in the Commonwealth of Nations – which is focused on providing industry guidance on awareness campaigns and capturing current initiatives taking place across Commonwealth regions and within member states. The draft report is open for comment through October 25th and is particularly interested in capturing any additional awareness programs taking place in the Commonwealth not currently included.
The diverse coalition of member states in the Commonwealth of Nations reflects also a wide range of cybersecurity capacities and awareness. According to research conducted by the International Telecommunications Union (ITU), as well as the Cybersecurity Tech Accord, 39 of the 53 Commonwealth countries have not previously recognized Cybersecurity Awareness Month, and 21 of the nations have never had a public cybersecurity awareness campaign of any kind. Cybersecurity Awareness Month provides a unique opportunity to take stock of these needs and explore what can be learned from initiatives pursued in other nations. With advanced cyber actors, like the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and Singapore, in the Commonwealth, there is a wealth of resources and information available to share to improve awareness, and the Cybersecurity Tech Accord looks forward to further supporting these efforts moving forward.
Download the draft report here.
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