This Cybersecurity Awareness Month, Let’s Celebrate the Opportunities in Cyber

By Deputy National Cyber Director Harry Wingo

October is always an exciting time for those of us in cybersecurity. As we come together for National Cybersecurity Awareness Month, it’s the perfect time to emphasize the many ways Americans can keep themselves safe online.

With each passing day, we’re seeing more and more Americans realize the impact of digital systems on our way of life.

Our friends at CISA continue to provide great cybersecurity resources as part of their “Secure Our World” campaign. Among the advice for all of us: have complex passwords and ideally use a password keeper to remember the tough passwords for you, enable multi-factor authentication on all of your sensitive accounts, update your software every time you’re asked to, and think before you click to avoid phishing scams.

And yet, too much of the responsibility of cybersecurity is falling on everyday Americans. On small businesses. On hospitals. On those that own and operate the systems that power our increasingly digital world.

Here at the White House Office of the National Cyber Director, we are proud to lead the implementation of President Biden’s National Cybersecurity Strategy. In this bold document, we focus on rebalancing the responsibility of cybersecurity away from individuals, small businesses, houses of worship, etc. and onto those most capable. That means the Federal Government needs to take on more responsibility, as does the large technology companies who should build their software to be secure by design. Here at ONCD, we take on the hard problems, and rebalancing the fight to ensure that your favorite small business or your child’s school isn’t going toe-to-toe with nation-state actors and cyber criminals is a task we’re proud to take on.

President Biden says “Our world is at an inflection point. That includes our digital world. The steps we take and choices we make today will determine the direction of our world for decades to come.”

So this October, and always, please keep yourselves and your loved ones safe online. Spread the awareness of cybersecurity and while you’re at it, let’s spread the awareness of the ability to join in the cybersecurity workforce and the opportunities to work in cybersecurity.

We recently launched, with our partners at OMB and OPM, our Service for America campaign, a recruiting, hiring, and engagement campaign aimed at getting the word out and encouraging more Americans to join us in good-paying, meaningful jobs in cyber, technology, and artificial intelligence. Whether folks join us in the Federal Government, or in state or local government, or work for one of the many institutions that provide critical services to your community, we need more folks joining us in the work to prepare our country for a digitally-enabled future.

Today there are approximately 500,000 open jobs in cyber – half a million! So, to those of you encouraged and energized by Cybersecurity Awareness Month, I encourage you to join us. Make no mistake, a career in cybersecurity helps protect our Nation. It contributes to our economic prosperity. And it helps ensure America remains the greatest innovator of technology in the history of the world.