On October 3, Governor Terry McAuliffe recognized October as National Cybersecurity Awareness Month. The nationwide initiative seeks to educate and engage public and private sector stakeholders and citizens on cybersecurity issues through a variety of communications and outreach activities being held across the country.

“Because technology touches every part of our citizens’ daily lives, cybersecurity must be an essential part of our public safety mission to protect our agencies, communities and critical infrastructure from domestic and foreign cyberattacks,” said Governor McAuliffe.

National Cybersecurity Awareness Month underscores the necessity of raising awareness about cybersecurity and providing individuals and businesses with the resources needed to stay safe online, as well as increasing resiliency in the event of a cyberattack in Virginia and across the nation.

Throughout National Cybersecurity Awareness Month, citizens and stakeholders are urged to help create a safer and more secure cyber environment by taking steps to keep themselves, their identities and their information safe online including:

• Setting strong, unique passwords
• Keeping operating systems, browsers and other applications updated
• Using only well-known, reputable sites when shopping online. Ensure sites are secure by looking for “https” in the address bar.

“With more than 50 billion devices projected to be connected to the internet by 2020, it is imperative that each individual take steps to mitigate the chance of being compromised,”said Secretary of Technology Karen Jackson.