In 2004, President George W. Bush declared October Cybersecurity Awareness Month. While Mann, Chief Information Security Officer for the Borough of West Chester , regularly issues on-line security updates, year round, during October he releases one report each weekday.
Mann started a little early and posted a lesson on the last day of September, which concerned passwords.
He said that passwords should be unique, at least 12 characters long and complex.
Don’t use your dog’s name or an address.
Bill Mann , seen in this screenshot from his YouTube video, will offer tips on cyber security. (DLN image)
Upper and lower case letters, numbers, symbols, special characters and punctuation should not be guessable. Each password should differ from all others used.
Each year since 2020, Mann, a 38-year borough employee, has focused on an individual theme designed to protect both the public and private sectors. This year’s theme is “Secure Our World.” It features four weekly lessons to make us cyber secure both at work and at home.
“If people have information, education and knowledge they can be safe,” Mann said. “Today all organizations and individuals are under constant assault from cybercriminals as they attempt to find new and complex ways to steal our data, money and even our identity.”
During October, followers of Mann’s YouTube postings will learn about password management, multi-factor authentication, phishing and why updating your software is so important. The lessons are open and free to everyone.
“Organizations in the public sector, including education, health and local governments are especially suspect able to cyber-attacks, that if undefended can lead to financial loss, such as ransomware, down time, liability risk, credibility loss and very often, even the need to rebuild infrastructures.”
Mann said, during an interview in his borough office, that the number one cyber attack is through phishing, with the bad guys sending out texts or email messages in a bid for infect files and for us to release personal information.
“Everyone is suspect able to phishing,” Mann said. “We all get emails, text messages and phone calls.”
Why does Mann take cybercrime so seriously?
“I know how dangerous cybercriminals can be,” he said. “All IT leaders have an obligation to help people keep safe from cybercrime.
“I try to make everyone a cybercrime fighter–protecting our organizations.”
While Mann said that 10 years ago he spent 10 percent of his work time on computer security, now he spends 60 percent when on the job on security.
“When you are passionate about it, it brings out the passion in others,” he said. “It’s more than just during this month.”
Mann invites anyone interested in learning more about Cybersecurity Awareness Month to contact him at wmann@west-chester.com. You can sign-up for his “Cybersecurity Daily” channel on YouTube and “Cybersecurity Friday” newsletter to not only stay involved through October but all year long.
Mann believes that cybersecurity should be a part of everyone’s daily life because cyber criminals never stop trying to steal from us at home and the organizations we work for.
“It is through our knowledge, care and curiosity that we can protect ourselves, our families and our organizations,” Mann said.
© 2024 Daily Local News, West Chester, Pa. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
