October is National Cyber Security Awareness Month which is an annual campaign to raise awareness about the importance of cybersecurity. The Internet touches almost all aspects of everyone’s daily life, whether we realize it or not.

What is cybersecurity awareness? It’s not just knowledge. Knowing isn’t doing. Security awareness is knowledge combined with attitudes and behaviors that serve to protect our information assets. Being cybersecurity aware means, you understand what the threats are, and you take the right steps to prevent them.

Probably one of the most important steps to online safety is good password practices. Passwords are a part of our everyday lives and are the main form of online account security. Here are some simple tips to make a secure password.

• Make your password several words. Use at least 12 characters and make sure that you will remember the password. Writing the password on a piece of paper under your keyboard is NOT secure.

• For every account, create a different password. Even if a criminal can crack one of your passwords, they should not be able to get into all your accounts.

• Use a reputable password manager. Password managers can randomly generate unique passwords for every account and store them securely for you.

For more information on Cyber Security visit: https://www.dhs.gov/national-cyber-security-awareness-month