October is national cybersecurity awareness month. Here at Risk Management magazine, we celebrated by running an eight-page feature on the topic in our latest issue. Over at the Department of Homeland Security, they have launched an online campaign to educate the public on the threat and ways to mitigate the threat.

Atop the webpage for its “Stop. Think. Connect” campaign is the following quote from the president.

“Cybersecurity is not an end unto itself; it is instead an obligation that our governments and societies must take on willingly, to ensure that innovation continues to flourish, drive markets, and improve lives.”

– President Barack Obama

And they also include the handy chart below on ways people can protect themselves.

Increasingly, the government is taking this risk seriously. I heard a presentation by Richard Clarke this summer and he warned that the United States remains woefully underprepared for cyberthreats. That’s probably true, but Washington officials are ramping up their efforts with reforms like the National Cyber Command. And while a web campaign isn’t going to protect the nation against Chinese hackers, Iranian worm attacks or North Korean cyberattacks, it will hopefully help a few people increase their personal safely, even if ever so slightly.

And while that isn’t the major leap forward the nation needs to stay protected in a world in which the digital threat gets scarier everyday, increasing the security of one person at a time is better than nothing.