RECOGNISING SIGNIFICANCE OF CYBER SECURITY AWARENESS

To start with I would like to recorgnise this "ARTICLE" , It has been an inspiration to rise awareness on the Cybersecurity awareness month. after that, Let me tell that in terms of global communications, the world is going through the most exciting period in human history. Now people are more connected than ever. Internet has been facilitating many things in daily routines.

People connect with friends and family, conduct business and banking online and rely on many services, like transportation and electricity, which are supported with online systems. Technology has spearheaded advancements in healthcare, education, business, music, government, and many other industries.

As technology advances, life becomes easier and more connected. However, being constantly connected brings increased risk of theft, fraud, and abuse. No country, industry, community, or individual is immune to cyber risks.

No doubt there are multiple challenges facing cyberspace today. Despite of the initiatives which are taken by some countries, Cyber terrorism, Cyber war and organised crimes are still considered growing threats.

Chunks of money have been invested by developed countries to facilitate the fight against these crimes. Due to these rapidly growing cyberthreats, the fight against cybercrime has been promoted across the global.

In Tanzania, misuse of social media and other cybercrime activities started getting to the extreme and compelled the country to take stern measures. The Cybercrime Act 2015 became officially effective last month (September 1st). However, having a Cyber law in place is not enough. It’s time for Tanzania to adopt other international initiatives to improve cybersecurity in the country.

One of the very important initiatives to fight cybercrimes is to run well-organized cyber security awareness programmes. People remain the weakest link to the security chain.

For instance, highly skilled professionals could pose substantial cyber threats (e.g. creating and distributing malicious codes and hacking). It is believed that, users with low awareness and skills on cybersecurity can provide serious vulnerability threats (e.g. ignoring data protection, compromising access credentials). It is therefore imperative that deliberate efforts are made to sensitize, raise awareness, and impart skills on cyber protection.

This has proven an ability to reduce cybercrimes in any nation. Doing otherwise may render efforts to combat cybercrimes in any nation futile. Recognizing the importance of cyber security awareness programme twelve years ago, the US designated October as National Cyber Security Awareness Month. This is designed to engage and educate public and private sector partners through events and initiatives with the goal of raising awareness about cybersecurity and increasing the resilience of the nation in the event of a cyber-incident.

This initiative has been adopted by many countries and it’s now recorgised globally. Last year, Tanzania organized few events during this month of awareness that were very successful.

The country is expected to do more on the same this year in order to extend awareness to its citizens and encourage good usage of these available technologies. As we approach the general election later this month, we should also remember misusCustomering the social media to promote hate and misunderstandings may distabilise the equilibrium of our national security and put our valued peace in jeopardy.

Therefore this cybersecurity awareness month should be well utilized to promote awareness to the community. Some awareness tips for all Internet users can leverage to practice cybersecurity during Cyber Security Awareness Month and throughout the year.

Set strong passwords and don’t share them with anyone. Keep your operating system, browser, and other critical software optimised by installing updates. Maintain an open dialogue with your family, friends, and community about Internet safety.

#CyberAware #TANZANIA - It's OCTOBER, Awareness Month Set strong passwords and don’t share them with anyone.... http://t.co/Ty0CaKdL0Z

— YUSUPH KILEO (@YUSUPHKILEO) October 1, 2015

Limit the amount of personal information you post online and use privacy settings to avoid sharing information widely and be cautious about what you receive or read online — if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. As for organisations, Cybersecurity awareness program offers lots of benefits as well.

It helps the employees understand the need for information security and effective risk management programs. A good awareness program helps organisations to understand the various risks associated with it and to develop economical tools to prevent them. It provides a full visibility and also helps them to detect suspicious activities and minimise the chance for security incidents.

In addition, it helps the organisation to save money by providing proper training on the use of appropriate levels of protection and more effective architectures as well as controls. These programmes also teach the employees how to use the resources to promote continuous improvement.

This will help improve the reputation of the organization, information security integration and customer satisfaction. Apart from all of these things, it helps the organization to maintain its stability. Failure, to take this cybersecurity awareness serious may cause the organisation’s economy to be effected, because cybercriminals lead to a lot of money lost in banks and other financial institutions. Economy loss can lead to the damage of the organization’s wellbeing.

While combating cybercrime through cybersecurity awareness and other initiatives we should also know that the work isn’t only for an individual alone or one group of people. The fight should start with an individual, meaning each individual should be able to create a way to stay protected when it comes to all cybercrimes and then make sure those who are around are also protected. The fight should also involve multiple organisations by joining hands to extend force on fighting against cybercrimes.

An individual can stay protected by having all the necessary precaution such as genuine operating system and ant-virus software installed in a system, stay connected only when necessary and avoid suspicious links or websites that may jeopardize security on a system. On the other hand each individual should also take responsibility to make sure others are safe, this can be done when an individual make sure not to cause any harm to others by either sending harmful content or trying to commit any cybercrime to others.

An organization can stay safe by making sure there are right security policies and rules implemented and ensure all individuals follow them effectively. Having dedicated personnel that deal with system/ cyber security in an organisation is very important to make sure all security rules and policiesare well implemented to insure not only each individual is safe when it comes to cybercrimes but also the entire organisation remain secured.

When each individual is safe and the organization is safe too, this will eventually result in a wide range of safety by eliminating inside threat. Inside threat is said to be more dangerous since the possibility to cause harm within an organisation is very high.

This is because the inside threat can easily gain access in a system. Remain threat should be from those who are outside intentionally in need to harm an individual or organization. Here is where the need to join force among organization should take place. Those from outside such as hackers and other cyber criminals can be defeated when multiple organisations join forces to make sure there is no room for those who would do harm by committing different cybercrimes to an individual, society or organization.