October is cyber security awareness month

October is cyber security awareness month

October is Cyber Security Awareness Month, a time to promote mindfulness and safe practices around users’ activities online. October also serves as the anniversary of the University of Toronto’s information security awareness and education initiative, dubbed “Security Matters”. This time last year, our team was rolling out its first initiative, the celebration of Cyber Security Awareness Month. We created bright, attractive banners and displayed them across the tri-campus. We wrote and shared articles about info security, providing our population with useful tips and tricks on how to protect their personal information.

From there the initiative grew. We created the security matters website, set up an active social media presence, and hosted monthly info sessions at all three campuses. We created a brand with friendly mascots and created a web game, “Patch vs. the Nefarious Code” featuring those characters. We participated in outreach activities setting up pop up booths where we would chat with students about their privacy and safe password practices.

It’s been a whirlwind of a year, and we are proud to present this year’s Cyber Security Awareness Month main events: a workshop and a presentation by information security expert, James Arlen.

James Arlen is a world-renowned information security expert. He is Leviathan’s director of risk and advisory services and a contributing analyst at Securosis. He has delivered security solutions to many Fortune 500, TSE 100 and major public-sector organizations. James frequently speaks at industry conference and his commentary can be found in various trade publications.

For only $1000 you can take James Arlen’s two-day workshop on Cloud Security for business and IT professionals. This course provides a solid foundation in cloud security and the opportunity to apply that foundation in practice. You could become certified; the course content is sufficient to take the Certificate of Cloud Security Knowledge certification test offered by the Cloud Security Alliance. Register through ODLC.

You can also join us for a special speaking engagement, “Information Security Risk – from a Business, Administrative and Technical Perspective”, with Mr. Arlen on October 26th from noon-2pm. In this talk, attendees will learn about information security risk handling and the vital role it plays in any information security program. Information security risk handling provides a process for budget managers and administrators to use for making decisions regarding reducing or accepting the risk that accompanies the operation of online services. This talk is directed at staff in administrative and business roles as well as IT professionals. This session is totally free of charge and all are welcome. Register for free.

During Cyber Security Awareness Month keep an eye out for our banners and follow us on social media to keep up with all of our activities.

To learn more visit securitymatters.utoronto.ca

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