October is celebrated as National Cyber Security Awareness Month (NCSAM) globally. Started by the (US) National Cyber Security Division within the Department of Homeland Security and the nonprofit National Cyber Security Alliance, the month raises awareness about the importance of cybersecurity. In India the lead is taken by the Data Security Council of India, a NASSCOM initiative.
October 19 2020:The Internet is today’s backbone for all kind of online services, and it has given rise to various features such as Social Media, Online Shopping, Digital Payments, e-Education, e-Health and the list goes on.
In the current pandemic situation where Work from Home is a reality for most and Digital services are on the rise, so are cyberattacks. Cyber Security has become more important than ever in today’s Digital Life. It is no more a matter for security experts and web admins to take care of. Hackers and cyber attackers no more target only companies and corporations, but individuals too.
Cyber Security is now a part of every individual’s life. The more connected we get, safeguarding our digital identities becomes a shared responsibility. The more we share, the more we must care.
In order to bring attention to Cyber Security and as a concentrated effort to stay safe and secure online, NCSAM is celebrated all over the world. It is an initiative to put conscious efforts towards ensuring better cyber security hygiene and incorporate stronger security measures. It is a collective responsibility of the government, organisations, employees, consumers and citizens at large to take Security as a Priority and #StayCyberSafe.
Industry insights:
Rohan Vaidya, Managing Director - India at CyberArk: October is celebrated as the National Cybersecurity Awareness Month (NCSAM) for the past 17 years now. It emphasizes on creating awareness about the importance of cybersecurity and helps available resources be safer and more secure online. With ‘Do Your Part. #BeCyberSmart,’ as the theme for the year, it reminds us that cybersecurity is a shared responsibility and each one of us has a role to play.With remote working becoming the new normal, it has become a necessity for cybersecurity experts to provide guidance on the threats that pose the maximum risk to organisations and employees as well as ways to tackle them. Simple tips for securing their digital profile – from picking strong passwords and safeguarding connected devices with multi-factor authentication (MFA), to securing home networks and keeping software up-to-date really go a long way. Businesses must also do their part to make the digital world a safer place for customers, employees and partners. This begins with protecting access – especially privileged access - to their critical enterprise assets. We at CyberArk are helping to encourage proactiveness to make cybersecurity a priority in our day-to-day lives and are committed to help organisations with the right solutions to achieve greater cyber resilience.
Anil Bhasin, regional vice president, India & SAARC, Palo Alto Networks: In its 17th year, National Cybersecurity Awareness Month (NCSAM) continues to work towards raising awareness about the importance of cybersecurity globally, ensuring that every nation has the required resources to be safer and more secure online. With this year’s theme as ‘Do Your Part. #BeCyberSmart’, each one of us needs to cooperate and work towards a cybercrime free world. Palo Alto Networks is focused on combating the ever growing challenges of cyberattacks and security breaches, with our threat intelligence capability as well as by offering best in-class solutions. Cybersecurity has become a critical part of our lives, especially with the COVID-19 pandemic forcing us to accept the new normal, its importance has risen than ever before, everywhere: in organisations irrespective of its size, government offices to the individual home user.
Industry advice:
Neelesh Kripalani, Sr. VP & Head- Center of Excellence – Clover Infotech: The COVID-19 pandemic has created many challenges for businesses across the globe. As there was a sudden switch to remote working style, there is an increased reliance on personal devices (such as personal computers, USB drives and other peripheral devices) for office related work. If any of these personal devices are compromised due to lack of security measures, then they can pose a serious threat to an organization’s infrastructure as soon as they are connected to the internal network.These risks are likely to impact all the organizations irrespective of their size unless the necessary steps are taken:
Scan all returning devices for vulnerabilities before they are connected to office network to avoid the spread of digital germs (if any).
Use a phased approach for employees' return instead of calling them all at once and putting unnecessary stress on the internal IT team. It can lead to errors while they perform clean-up/patching of devices.
Conduct awareness training before employees get back into action. Employees were used to certain routine in order to ensure cybersecurity. However, the work from home may have changed those habits. Educate employees on cybersecurity so that they get attuned to the safe and secure practices required at the workplace.
Industry initiatives and product announcements
Crowdstrike, a leader in cloud-delivered endpoint and workload protection, today announced the availability of contextual enrichment for threat detections via a unified console experience. This new capability seamlessly integrates third-party threat intelligence data with CrowdStrike Falcon detections and incidents, delivering a comprehensive picture of an organization’s threat landscape.
To address these challenges and the complex process involved with different solutions having their own management consoles and varied threat intelligence data, CrowdStrike has introduced a unified console experience for security teams, where threat intelligence from various vendors enrich detections from the Falcon platform. This provides security teams with complete visibility and richer context of  threat detections required to quickly understand, stop, and remediate incidents.   
IBM Security has  announced new and upcoming capabilities for Cloud Pak for Security, including a first of its kind data security solution that allows companies to detect, respond to and protect against threats to their most sensitive data across hybrid cloud environments. Designed to unify previously disconnected security technologies, IBM has expanded Cloud Pak for Security to include new data sources, integrations, and services that allow security operations teams to manage the full threat lifecycle from a single console.
 With these upcoming capabilities, Cloud Pak for Security will include access to six threat intelligence feeds, 25 pre-built connections to IBM and third-party data sources, and 165 case management integrations – which are connected through advanced AI to prioritize threats, and automation playbooks to streamline response actions for security teams.