Editor's Note: National Cyber Security Awareness Month (NCSAM) is coming up and we are enabling organizations to make this most of October. Every Monday, for the next six weeks, we will be posting a new blog on how to make the most of NCSAM and the NCSAM Planning Kit. The planning kit is everything you need for a successful October, to include daily activities, resources and templates. This week we focus on Week00, Preparing and Communicating For October.
October is next week and I could not be more excited. Not only does October mean the coming of fall (my favorite season of the year) but its all about security awareness. While NCSAM does not officially kick off until next week, this week is critical for getting people engaged and excited with what is about to come. If you have not done so already, be sure to take your communications team out to lunch. Get them excited about NCSAM and ask them for ideas on how they can help. The key to any successful October, or to be honest for any security awareness program, is having a strong partnership with your communications team. Get them excited about being part of your awareness program and helping make a difference.
The other key step to this week is communicate to your organization about what is coming. Don't focus on all the different activities but instead focus on WHY people should care, how will October benefit them. Engage people at an emotional level. Once you have people excited and listening, then you can go into the details of WHAT and WHEN. To do that focus on how October will be both fun and benefit people personally. To help you with just that, be sure to download and use the Communications template from Week00 of the NCSAM Planning Kit.
Next week (what we call Week 01) we will kick off NCSAM with the theme of STOP. THINK. CONNECT.: Best Practices for All Digital Citizens. To learn more about building high impact awareness programs, check out our two day course MGT433 Securing The Human and upcoming Summit in London on 11 Nov.
