National Cyber Security Awareness Month is Here

Jessica Shawcroft
The Paw Print

This year is the 10th Anniversary of National Cyber Security Awareness Month!
National Cyber Security Awareness Month is a broad effort by government, industry, and education to help everyone stay safe and secure online. Adams State University is one of the partner champions for the campaign.
This October, you will see many posters around campus discussing NCSAM and ways that students and employees can help protect themselves, others, and the university while online.
I don’t know about you, but I am on the computer constantly.  A lot of my job and school work is done online so this was really interesting for me to look into.
I took a test to see how I rank for the online targeted, if I’m very likely to be targeted or not. You can take it here as well: http://staysafeonline.org/ncsam/resources/online-identity-risk-calculator.
My score came up as having a low risk of being targeted. I don’t download a lot on my computer and I don’t buy things online much. Some of the questions, I felt, were an obvious yes, and too easy to gain a score off of; for nstance, one of the questions was if I have an email. Yes, I have email, I have a personal account, a work account, and the school sets me up with one automatically; I gained a lot of points from this. I also use one social networking site, which caused me to gain points. It was still important to take, and at the end it has information about how many attacks through a specific way were done in 2011.
Their website is: www.staysafeonline.org/ncsam.
I went onto their website to find other ways I can stay safe online, because the last thing I want is my hard earned paycheck to go to someone’s internet movie addiction.
The site has ways to promote NCSAM which is important because, as we know, awareness is half the battle. The site also has ways to get involved and champion to show your support for the event. If you want to host an event or see what National Cyber Security Awareness Month is all about, the website offers that too.
Probably the most important part of the website is its emphasis on cyber security awareness resources. This part of the site offers tips, a fact sheet, and victim’s stories of their cybercrime, a mobile tip sheet, internet security & safety tips for parents and advice if you’re dealing with this issue. It also has different studies ranging from 2010-2012 to help show support. They have three quizzes listed, if you want to know your risk.
People tend to say that young people think it won’t happen to them, and it might not. In case you feel you’re getting phishing emails or your computer has been infected by a virus, log onto the site, learn about what’s happening and some options you might have to fix it, before your computer and bank account break.