Photo By Master Sgt. Deidra Knight | Participants sit and concentrate on a cyber awareness quiz given during the...... read more read more
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Fort Belvoir, VA- The United States Army Reserve Command held their annual cyber awareness expo October 12, 2016 at the Office of the Chief of Army Reserve.
October is National Cyber Security Awareness Month and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security first observed it in 2003, but it was brought to the Army Reserve as a top priority in 2013.
Since its implementation, government agencies as well as private sectors have started to fold cyber security into their annual training.
“It’s an opportunity to get out and talk to the field and gauge where the cyber security awareness is for the organization as well as other people and directorates that are outside of the Informational Technology (IT) department G6,” said Kim Register, cyber security division chief for Army Reserve at USARC in Fort Bragg, NC.
“It’s an opportunity to really understand how important cyber security is not only in their home life but also for work,” said Register.
Cyber security attacks come in many different forms such as spear phishing, social engineering, mishandling of personal identifiable information (PII), and many more.
The Army Reserve, with the guidance of the Army, has mandated annual cyber awareness training to help Soldiers become more aware of cyber security.
“Since 2013, we have seen an increase in the number of hackers trying to get information and in some ways have been successful but we’ve implemented various levels of defense in-depth and different cyber tools to slow them down but they’re still out there and very prevalent,” said Register.
The Army Reserve has started using a variety of training aids to help get the message across that cyber security is everyone’s job.
The expo was both multimedia and interactive with a running slideshow and handouts.
It also featured a 6-question quiz that tested the participants’ knowledge of cyber security. Prizes were given based on your quiz score and if a Soldier didn’t do so well they still walked away with knowledge and a little treat. Soldier seemed to enjoy the way the expo was presented and even enjoyed the quiz.
“I thought the quiz was really good, it included some information that I really should know, so if I was unsure, it made me think about reviewing that part of cyber security again,” said Maj. Patricia Cruz, retirement services officer.
“It also shows what we need to do to protect the information that we have against our enemies,” she said.
The main purpose of the expo was to continue to bring awareness of cyber threats in a fun way so that Soldiers would remember.
“This [expo] gives our users awareness that these are things they can do to secure our information, arm our Soldiers with information and protect their families from things such as personally identifiable Information (PII) spillage,” said Register.
“The intent is stop these type of things from happening and the best way to do that is by educating the user and that’s what cyber security awareness is all about.”
When asked how the command would change next year, Register stated that they would look at the common questions that Soldiers missed and see if more training is needed based on that.
“We did a similar expo at USARC and we utilize the knowledge assessment quiz that everyone took in both places and those areas where a lot of people are missing the same types of questions like the classification question, shows us what we need to be focus on,” she said.
“Also, as different cyber methods are developed we’ll try to keep the user educated on it, what to be aware of, and be self aware.”
“We have a dedicated cyber security staff in Fort Bragg, NC and please if you have a question or you’re not sure, call us we’ll guide you in the right direction,” said Register.
Cyber security is everyone’s responsibility. The threat is real and evolving. Everyday hackers try to penetrate our networks.
Stay vigilant!
| Date Taken: | 10.12.2016 |
| Date Posted: | 10.14.2016 14:09 |
| Story ID: | 212044 |
| Location: | FORT BELVOIR, VIRGINIA, US |
| Web Views: | 236 |
| Downloads: | 1 |
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