National Computer Security Day

Today, November 30, is National Computer Security Day. The day is all about encouraging everyone to be proactive in ensuring the equipment and systems they use on a day-to-day basis are secure. This is especially important as we enter the holiday season and many partake in online shopping, often without stopping to consider if what they are doing is safe.

According to National Today, National Computer Security Day has a unique history.

“On November 2, 1988, Cornell University researchers uncovered an unknown virus lurking in their computer systems,” reports the website. “Within four hours of discovery, the ‘Morris worm’ virus invaded several other university systems as well as the ARPANET, an early version of today’s internet.”

Within a week, a recommendation was made to form a “National Computer Infection Action Team” (NCAT) to be able to respond to cyber attacks every hour of every day. A Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT) was formally established by November 14, under the umbrella of the Software Engineering Institute (SEI), a research center connected to Carnegie Mellon.

The idea of dedicating a date to computer security was then set in 1988, and “sprang out of the Washington, D.C., chapter of the Association for Computing Machinery’s (ACM) Special Interest Group on Security, Audit, and Control as a way to raise awareness about cyber crimes and viruses,” reports National Today.

The late-November timeframe is believed to have been selected to correlate with the holiday shopping season, when people are more focused on what they are buying without paying attention to how their personal data is being handled.

Many people associate Daylight Savings Time with a reminder to check the batteries in their smoke detectors – an easy step to protect their homes. National Computer Security Day is meant to serve as a similar reminder to check the level of protection on physical assets like laptops and cell phones as well as digital assets, like email and account logins.

What can you do to help ensure you are protected this National Computer Security Day?

• Do a password check. Are your passwords complex? How long has it been since any of your passwords changed? Many browsers, like Chrome, offer built-in safety checks to help with this task.
• Check or set up breach alerts. Cyber security breaches are happening all of the time. Do you have alerts set up to let you know when you may be impacted?
• Verify your physical security. Are you in an office environment? Is your laptop and other important equipment secured?
• Ensure your software is up to date. Many patches help resolve security issues. Check your laptop and cell phone to ensure all security patches are current.
• Back up your data. Whether using the cloud or a physical device, periodically back up your data to ensure nothing is lost in case of a security breach. Make sure both physical and cloud storage has a high-level of security protection in place.

These are just a few easy steps that you can take to ensure that your systems and online information is secure. The best protection is to be proactive – if you stay on top of your tech and digital security, you greatly reduce your risk of an attack.

Want to learn about cybersecurity? Capitol Tech offers bachelor’s, master’s and doctorate degrees in cyber and information security. Many courses are available both on campus and online. To learn more about Capitol Tech’s degree programs, contact admissions@captechu.edu.