4 Takeaways from Cybersecurity Awareness Month Celebrations at BeyondTrust

In honor of Cybersecurity Awareness Month this October, the team at BeyondTrust has been participating in a variety of fun and informative events. This year’s theme, Secure Our World, was a powerful reminder of how pervasive our online identities are—both professionally and personally. Each of us has a responsibility to reduce virtual risks and contribute to a safer cyber world for all.

“At BeyondTrust, every day is a fight to protect our customers’ Paths to Privilege™ as we work to create a world where identities and access are protected from cyberthreats, and education is a key part of what we do. For our team, Cybersecurity Awareness Month is an exciting opportunity to share our knowledge and expertise with others, as visibility and awareness are some of the first steps in ensuring we're in this fight together.” - Janine Seebeck, CEO

Here at BeyondTrust, we spend a lot of time discussing simple actions that we, as individuals, can take to become better security practitioners. This year, we participated in several activities to spark these discussions, including a personal security lunch and learn, a cybersecurity bingo game, a hacking demonstration to see our solutions in action, and a quiz to test our security smarts.

As the month’s festivities wrap up in early November, our team has reflected on everything they’ve learned through these activities, particularly why they believe identity security best practices are more crucial than ever. Read on to learn the top four reasons why cybersecurity is important to the team at BeyondTrust.

1. Our virtual identities are extremely valuable.

The reality is that if you have a virtual identity of some kind—a bank account, health data, credit card used for online payments, etc.—you have something of value to attackers. So regardless of your social or financial status, you have a lot of online value to protect.

“I've often heard people say they don't care about security because they have nothing to protect in today's world: no large savings accounts, no dirty secrets. The problem is that cyber attackers don't need your dirty secrets to get into your accounts; they just need a breadcrumb trail to follow to ruin your life. Don't make it easy for them; protect yourself and keep your personal information personal.” – Stacey Meggs, Compliance Analyst

Our virtual identities are not only the keys to our personal information, but could also become a stepping stone into critical systems containing sensitive business data. Today’s attackers are taking advantage of unprotected and overprivileged identities — often logging in through legitimate credentials versus breaking in. According to the Microsoft Vulnerabilities Report 2024, Elevation of Privilege has remained the #1 vulnerability category over the past four years.

“The easiest way to infiltrate an organization is to compromise an identity and impersonate the account (machine or human) performing trusted operations. It has become a matter of fact that it is easier to log in versus hack in. If the threat actor is stealthy, their malicious activity is undetectable compared to normal operations, and they can move laterally across accounts, assets, data, and applications without being detected. By hijacking the right identity—such as a highly privileged one—an attacker can even achieve their ends without the use of any malware.” – Morey J. Haber, Chief Security Advisor

Jason Edgcomb, an Account Executive at BeyondTrust, called out one of his favorite quotes about the importance of protecting our digital identities:

“Amateurs hack systems; professionals hack people.” – Bruce Schneier

2. A safer virtual environment is a more connected, inclusive one.

When discussing cybersecurity, it’s easy to focus primarily on what’s at risk. However, it’s also important to remember that when we take steps towards a more secure virtual world, it doesn’t just protect us from danger, it also fosters a more connected, safe, and inclusive place for us all to work and play.

“Cybersecurity is important, as it allows us to foster an inclusive online space for work and personal where people can connect with each other. Without the foundations of cybersecurity, businesses wouldn't be able to collaborate across geographic lines as they wouldn't trust that their information is safe. Families wouldn't be able to easily share updates for members who aren't close by, and our ability to collaborate on knowledge work would be restricted to our home location.” – Tasha Clowater, Sr. Technical Account Manager

Luckily, there are many simple steps we can take to better protect our personal assets and businesses. Here are a few quick tips that we discussed in our cybersecurity awareness bingo game:

• Turn on the auto-lock feature on your personal and work devices.

• Preview links before clicking on them (and report suspicious work-related emails/texts to your IT department!)

• Ensure your software/apps are up to date (better yet, turn on automatic updates for your mobile device).

• Use strong passwords that consist of letters, numbers and symbols—and no easily-guessed words such as your children or pets’ names. A password manager can help you build and use strong passwords.

• Enable multi-factor authentication on your accounts.

• Stay aware of evolving cybersecurity risks and trends.

• Keep the discussion going with your family and friends.

Ready to become a defender of your business environment and your digital identity? Start with a complimentary identity security assessment and free trial of Identity Security Insights®, our monitoring platform for uncovering identity vulnerabilities and hidden Paths to Privilege.

Or, to learn more about tips and best practices for detecting and defending against identity threats, check out these additional recommended resources from our cybersecurity experts:

• Cybersecurity Survival Guide

• Top Cybersecurity Trend Predictions for 2025+: BeyondTrust Edition

• Paths to Privilege™ Explained

• Ask the Cybersecurity Experts: Why the Success of Modern Cyber Defense Hinges on Identity Security

• The BeyondTrust Identity Security Channel