City of Alexandria Recognizes Cybersecurity Awareness Month

City of Alexandria today announced its commitment to cybersecurity education by participating in the 21st Annual Cybersecurity Awareness Month. Founded in 2004, Cybersecurity Awareness Month, held each October, is the world's foremost initiative aimed at promoting cybersecurity awareness and best practices.

Cybersecurity Awareness Month is a collaborative effort among businesses, government agencies, colleges and universities, associations, nonprofit organizations, tribal communities, and individuals committed to educating others about online safety.

From mobile to connected home devices, technology is deeply intertwined in our lives. Emerging technologies have many great benefits for society but with those new technologies come new opportunities for bad actors to disrupt our online activities at home, school, or at work.

This month aims to highlight some of the emerging challenges that exist in the world of cybersecurity today and provide straightforward, actionable guidance that anyone can follow to create a safe and secure digital world for themselves and their loved ones.

The theme of Cybersecurity Awareness Month is Secure Our World, which encourages all of us to take four easy steps each day to ensure our online safety:

• Understand the benefits of using a password manager and dispelling existing myths around password manager security and ease of use.
• Turn on multifactor authentication on personal devices and business networks.
• Recognize and report phishing - still one of the primary threat actions used by cybercriminals today.
• Install updates on a regular basis and turn on automated updates.

Cybersecurity Awareness Month continues to build momentum and impact with the goal of providing everyone with the information they need to stay safe and more secure online. City of Alexandria is proud to support this critically important online safety awareness and education initiative, led by the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency and the National Cybersecurity Alliance.

For more information about Cybersecurity Awareness Month and how to participate, visit cisa.gov/cybersecurity-awareness-monthand staysafeonline.org/cybersecurity-awareness-month/.

We also invite you to some public events:

• The City's Office of the Arts (a division in RPCA) in partnership with the Commonwealth Cyber Initiative (CCI) and Virginia Tech, will hold an art exhibition on Cybersecurity at the Torpedo Factory Art Centerfrom October 5 - January 19. The 2024 CyberArts Exhibit explorer identity, scams, misinformation, AI, among so much more! This exhibition is free and open to the public. A reception will occur October 18 from 6-830p with limited free tickets for the public. Ticket RSVPs will be available here.
• Hosted by City IT Commission and Computer CORE "Secure Your Digital Life" Saturday, October 26 from 10am-12pm. It will be at the Del Pepper Community Center MCD 1305 A, B, and C rooms. The objectives are community engagement, awareness of resources, and an overall understanding of the threats and how to protect ourselves. This is open to the public and geared towards Seniors and adults, more information is here.