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The CommCore Observer: Cybersecurity Awareness Month – AI – Adds a New Wrinkle

   

We are about half-way through October, aka, Cybersecurity Awareness Month. Communicators should be using this time to alert employees, retirees, vendors, shareholders, and their families and friends about being more aware of their on-line habits and the increasing danger of generative AI scams and attempts.

The U.S. Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) has a wealth of materials to download, including tool kits and press releases for any organization to share. Similarly, the Canadian Center for Cybersecurity (CCC) has additional materials including a virtual background for Zoom calls. Like any effective communications effort, it’s about reaching people in different ways – texts, posters, town halls, YouTube and TikTok videos.

With all the stories in 2023 about generative AI, it hasn’t taken long for hackers and cyber criminals to develop their own tool kits. Recent articles and interviews on local TV, trade publications like CNET and business publications spell out this new danger.

According to Bree Fowler in CNET, “While ChatGPT will politely decline if you ask it to write a phishing email, it will happily generate emails masquerading as a payroll department requesting that money be sent, or an IT department mandating that a software update be installed. It’s all about asking the AI the right kinds of questions to get past those guardrails.”

CommCore’s suggestion: Keep up to date on cyber preparedness. Work with Legal and IT on how to best communicate to your teams. Be creative and don’t just communicate in October.

CISA’s 4 big recommendations:

1.     Use strong passwords AND a password manager

2.     Turn on multi-factor authentication

3.     Recognize and report phishing

4.     Update software

We are capable of learning behaviors that make us safer and healthier: Think seat belts, preventative cancer screenings and coughing into our elbows. Cybersecurity requires a similar effort.

Schedule Your Employee Communications Skills Training

Do you have staff in management or leadership roles who could benefit from communications skills training? Are certain members of your team increasingly in the public eye – either internally or with external stakeholders, or the media? Those who often facilitate meetings, have frequent public speaking engagements (presentations, panels, short speeches), and spokespeople who appear on radio, TV and/or digital media interviews will benefit from this type of professional development.

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To schedule a training or get answers quickly, call us at (202) 659-4177 or email info@CommCoreConsulting.com