Recent events have further highlighted the need for more Cybersecurity Awareness in the general public.

• In late September 2022, Optus suffered from a Data Breach which potentially affected nearly 10 million ordinary Australians. Since then mainstream media and social media is filled with daily stories, posts, opinions and comments about Optus, our Personal information, Privacy laws and our general approach to Cybersecurity.
• Since the Optus breach Telstra also suffered from a data breach,
• Overseas, Uber suffered a major data breach
• Coincidentally, October is Cybersecurity Awareness Month – a month where security professionals and government authorities encourage ordinary people and businesses to review and improve their cybersecurity.

In the wake of the Optus Data Breach, mainstream media introduced experts telling ordinary members of the public what they should do to better protect themselves with regard to their cybersecurity.

One thing is certain, just like with a recent global pandemic, the general public have had to undertake crash courses in new concepts such as Work from Home, new technologies and terminologies such as QR codes and RATs, and having to adjust to a new way of doing things in life as a result.

The media coverage alongside my own interactions with clients and community members have revealed some issues.

• All the cybersecurity experts had less than a minute of on-air time which meant everyone was told what to do but not how to do it.
• IT industry phrases and technologies such as Multifactor Authentication (MFA), Phishing, data breach, Personal Identifiable Information (PII) ,etc. were waved at the average citizen without full explanation and causing additional stress and fear.
• Older and/or less tech savvy Australians need assistance with becoming more cybersecue, either from family members or other trusted people within their communities.
• Australia is a diverse community, which can make conveying cybersecurity concepts and methods more difficult.
• There are some very good sites with cybersecurity resources but too much technical jargon is involved with explanations.

Cybersecurity Awareness Guide

In response the highlighted issues and my 20+ years in the IT industry, I have compiled my own version of a Cybersecurity Awareness Guide, pulling together concepts, terminologies, a more in-depth explanation and some linked resources to try and make it easier to help the community, both young and old members alike.

Please go and check out the Cybersecurity Awareness Guide at http://cyberaware.guide

• It is focused on helping Australians as a lot of links to Australian based services were not easy to find.
• Share it with family members and staff alike. Everyone has a family that hopefully can benefit from the information.
• Become a more educated Cybersecurity Adviser to your family and staff, so they can turn to you for assistance in any suspicious activity affecting them.
• I aim to make the site more multi-lingual, currently we are testing it out with Traditional Chinese.
• Contact me via the online form or via social media for any suggestions and feedback.

A big thanks to my peers, clients and community who gave me the idea to put together this Guide and I hope it turns out to be of assistance to the wider community.

I am planning to host at least one community event in Sydney during October 2022 for Cybersecurity Awareness Month to accompany this Guide.

This would be in-person training over a couple of hours to provide practical aspects of the Cybersecurity Awareness Guide such as Password Management and Multifactor Authentication.

Subscribe and/or watch this blog for event details and updates to the Cybersecurity Awareness Guide.