Strengthen Your Defenses During Cybersecurity Awareness Month: 5 Steps Every Business Should Take
October is Cybersecurity Awareness Month, an ideal time for organizations to re-evaluate their security posture, renew employee awareness, and implement stronger controls. At GDS, we believe that one month of focus can spark lasting improvements in cybersecurity culture. In this post, we’ll highlight key themes from CISA’s official toolkit and show you how to turn them into action steps for your business.
Why Cybersecurity Awareness Month Matters
CISA’s toolkit offers a wealth of guidance, resources, and best practices to help organizations of all sizes improve resilience and readiness. Though the full toolkit requires special access, its themes focus on building a human layer of defense, reinforcing leadership buy-in, and enabling continuous improvement of security controls.
When attackers increasingly exploit human error, outdated software, weak credentials, and misconfigurations, a proactive awareness campaign can be a difference-maker.
5 Actionable Steps for Your Business
1. Roll Out a Security Awareness Campaign
Use short, repeatable messages (weekly tips, posters, email reminders) to reinforce key behaviors: recognizing phishing, reporting suspicious links, using strong passwords, and enabling MFA.
2. Conduct a Phishing Simulation
Test employees with controlled phishing scenarios. Use results to provide targeted training where gaps are found.
3. Review and Harden Privileged Access
Implement least-privilege principles, enforce MFA for all accounts (especially privileged), and regularly review access logs.
4. Ensure Software and OS Updates
Patch and update all software, including workstations, servers, and network devices. Unpatched systems are one of the top vectors for breach.
5. Audit and Plan Incident Response
Review or create a response plan. Run tabletop exercises with leadership to ensure roles and escalation paths are clear.
Secure your business with GDS.
Contact Us >How GDS Supports Your Cybersecurity Journey
At GDS, our Secure Plus offering is built to align with frameworks like CIS, NIST, HIPAA, and more. We help you with continuous security monitoring, vulnerability management, dark web scanning, and compliance reporting so you can focus on your core business while we keep watch behind the scenes.
This Cybersecurity Awareness Month, let’s make security more than a checkbox. It’s a mindset.
Read more: How to Strengthen Security with Microsoft 365: Best Practices for SMBs
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