Cyber Security Awareness Month 2022

News release

Ottawa, Ontario, October 1, 2022 – This October, CSE and its Get Cyber Safe campaign launch Cyber Security Awareness Month 2022 (Cyber Month) with the theme “Fight phishing: Ruin a cyber criminal's day!”

Phishing is a cyber criminal’s attempt to get sensitive information by pretending to be a legitimate sender like a bank or a government organization. According to the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre, phishing is one of the most commonly reported frauds in Canada.

This Cyber Month, organizations and individuals across Canada are encouraged to get involved by using the free resources in the Champions toolkit to raise awareness about cyber security and help fight phishing.

Also this October, the Communications Security Establishment is running its Don’t get reeled in digital advertising campaign aimed at helping Canadians protect themselves from phishing. 

On October 24th, to mark Media Literacy Week, Get Cyber Safe is teaming up with MediaSmarts, to present Discover online safety, a workshop for older adults.

In Canada, Cyber Month focuses on helping Canadians protect themselves in an evolving digital landscape by providing helpful tips that anyone can apply throughout the four-week campaign. The 2022 edition will focus on educating Canadians about phishing and highlight cyber security best practices. Cyber Month will explore the following weekly phishing themes:

  • Week 1: You Got Phished – The first week of Cyber Month will focus on how to tell if you have been hacked or phished, and what to do to prevent and recover from a scam, including how to report the incident.
  • Week 2: Where, Why and How it Happens – In this week, Cyber Month will explore the different types of phishing and provide an understanding of why cyber criminals attempt to scam. Learn about phishing trends, social engineering, malware, and ransomware.
  • Week 3: Prevention – This week, will teach you tools and tricks to ruin a cybercriminal’s day by using strong passwords and passphrases, enabling multi-factor authentication (MFA) and regularly backing up your data; and
  • Week 4: Putting it All to Together –This last week of Cyber Security Awareness Month will bring together everything  learned throughout the month! By the end, you will be able to detect the signs of a phishing campaign and know how to protect against a phishing attack. This will not only help you but help you to share the tips with family and friends too.

With partners across the country helping to spread awareness, Canadians will have all the tools at their fingertips to keep their devices safe and secured, and easily spot a phishing scam. The goal of the campaign is to fight phishing and foil a cyber criminal’s plan!

Check out the GetCyberSafe website, which offers Canadians important information and tools to stay cyber safe in all aspects of their lives, including an assessment tool that Canadians can use to improve their cyber security habits. 

Quotes

“Cyber Security Awareness Month is an important opportunity to educate Canadians on simple, effective cyber security measures. Especially given the recent increase in phishing, Canadians should take advantage of this month to learn about cyber security and increase their vigilance. This month and throughout the year, I encourage Canadians to read and employ the Cyber Centre’s tips to protect themselves and their information.”

– Anita Anand, Defence Minister 

“Over the past year, we have seen an increase in phishing scams. That’s why this Cyber Security Awareness Month is critical to educate Canadians on phishing campaigns deployed by cyber criminals. Making sure we all know how to detect, prevent, and mitigate phishing campaigns is best practice to strengthening our cyber defences, which helps to keep us all safe.”

– Sami Khoury, Head, Canadian Centre for Cyber Security 

Quick facts

  • Cyber Month is an internationally recognized campaign held each October to inform people of the importance of cyber security.

  • The Canadian Centre for Cyber Security (within CSE) manages the Get Cyber Safe national public awareness campaign. It delivers key information via its website and various social media channels so Canadians and small-to-medium organizations can help protect their digital landscape and be safe online.

  • The Get Cyber Safe public awareness campaign was established with the simple, but important mission of keeping Canadians safe online. 

  • The GetCyberSafe website offers Canadians important information and tools so they can stay cyber safe in all aspects of their lives. With information for everyone from parents to small-to-medium organizations, and general guidelines to follow when working from home, Get Cyber Safe has Canadians’ cyber security needs covered. The website also contains an assessment tool that Canadians can use to improve their cyber security habits.

  • The Canadian Centre for Cyber Security is Canada’s authority on cyber security. With the Cyber Centre as the single unified source of expert advice, guidance, services, and support on cyber security for government, critical infrastructure owners and operations, the private sector and the public, Canadians have a clear and trusted place to turn to for cyber security issues.

  • The Get Cyber Safe Awareness Tracking Survey from 2022 demonstrated that Canadians continue to face cyber threats.

    • 1 in 4 Canadians feel they are not prepared to face cyber threats, primarily because they feel one can never really be protected online.
    • 1 in 4 Canadians say they have been the victim of a virus, spyware, or malware on their computer.
    • 2 in 5 Canadians have looked up information about types of cyber security threats or how to tell if an email is a scam.  

Associated links

Contacts

Stay Connected
Follow CSE, Canadian Centre for Cyber Security, and Get Cyber Safe on Twitter.

For more information (media only) please contact:
CSE Media Relations
Media@cse-cst.gc.ca

Page details

Date modified: