Since 2004, the President of the United States and Congress have declared October to be Cybersecurity Awareness Month, helping individuals protect themselves online as threats to technology and confidential data become more commonplace. The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) and the National Cybersecurity Alliance (NCA) lead a collaborative effort between government and industry to raise cybersecurity awareness nationally and internationally. https://www.cisa.gov/cybersecurity-awareness-month This year, we will focus on four key behaviors which allow users to feel empowered to take responsibility for personal data safety online. WEEK 4 - The Importance of Updating Software Your data is valuable. As the world grows evermore connected via the internet, bad actors have greater opportunities to inappropriately access your data. If your valuable data ends up in the hands of a bad actor, the data can be used to cause financial, personal, and legal harm to yourself and others. Fortunately, you have the power to reduce the likelihood of becoming a victim of cybercrime! Updating software We use various software packages daily to perform our jobs, complete banking transactions, communicate with healthcare providers, purchase goods, and for personal enjoyment such as using a streaming service or playing a videogame. When a company develops software, they do so with security in mind. However, humans are not perfect and make mistakes when creating software products which can ultimately lead to vulnerabilities in the software. Companies regularly create patches or updates for identified vulnerabilities in their products to maintain security and keep their customers safe. Once a company creates a security update and shares it with their customers, it is up to the customer to apply the updates to ensure their data remains safe. Software vulnerabilities are a primary avenue bad actors use to access personal or otherwise sensitive data. Keeping your software up to date greatly reduces the likelihood of becoming a victim of cybercrime! [cid:image001.png@01D8E785.96E97AE0] James Hale, ARM-P, ARM-E, CPSI Risk Control Consultant County Risk Sharing Authority 209 East State Street Columbus, OH 43215 614.246.1630 FAX 614.220.0209 " The leader in providing Ohio Counties with exceptional value, service, and protection of assets." [cid:image002.png@01D8E785.96E97AE0] CONFIDENTIALITY NOTICE: This e-mail message (including any attachments) is intended only for the person or entity to which it is addressed and may contain confidential and/or privileged material. Any unauthorized review, use, disclosure or distribution is prohibited. If you are not the intended recipient, please contact the sender by reply e-mail and destroy this message and all attachments.