Senator Hassan, Colleagues Introduce Bipartisan Resolution Designating October as National Cybersecurity Awareness Month

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Gary Peters (D-MI), Chairman of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, led a bipartisan group of his colleagues in introducing a bipartisan resolution designating October 2021 as National Cybersecurity Awareness Month. The resolution recognizes the grave threat cyber-attacks, including ransomware attacks, pose to our national security and highlights simple steps individuals and businesses can take to protect their networks. U.S. Senators Bill Cassidy (R-LA), Jacky Rosen (D-NV), Mike Rounds (R-SD), John Cornyn (R-TX), Angus King (I-ME), and Maggie Hassan (D-NH) joined Peters to introduce the resolution.

“National Cybersecurity Awareness Month is an important way to help educate people, businesses, and government officials about how they can protect themselves and their customers from cyber-attacks that could significantly disrupt our daily lives and livelihoods,” said Senator Peters. “At a time when Americans are increasingly reliant on the internet to conduct day-to-day business – reminding folks of simple actions they can take to protect their security will help prevent cybercriminals from stealing personal information. This bipartisan resolution also highlights the need for an all hands on deck approach to prevent hackers from breaching American networks and compromising our national security.”

“Many aspects of our daily life depend on the internet,” said Dr. Cassidy. “Cybersecurity Awareness Month is a reminder that we need to be constantly improving our defenses against new cyber threats.”

“With our nation facing unprecedented and debilitating cyberattacks, we need a whole-of-society effort, with close collaboration between the public and private sectors, to increase the cyber resilience of the United States,” said Senator Rosen. “This bipartisan resolution to establish October as National Cybersecurity Awareness Month will shine a light on the importance of online security and protecting individuals, businesses, communities, federal agencies, and local governments from cyber threats.”

“Increasing overall cybersecurity awareness, prevention measures and educational resources will help protect Americans from attacks and attempted hacks,” said Senator Rounds. “As the ranking member of the Cybersecurity Subcommittee of the Senate Armed Services Committee, I am glad to join this bipartisan effort to bring attention to Cybersecurity Awareness Month and work to deter cyberattacks in our businesses, homes, government and military.”

“Our communities must be prepared to defend against the ever-evolving cyber threats they face,” said Senator Cornyn. “Cybersecurity Awareness Month will help ensure we stay vigilant and are ready to fend off cyberattacks from our adversaries.”

“America’s cyber networks are essential to our national security, our economy, and our increasingly-connected way of life. The value of these networks our society make them a prime target for America’s enemies and adversaries,” said Senator King, Co-Chair of the Cyberspace Solarium Commission. “However, unlike many of our national security concerns, this challenge cannot be faced by the government or military alone – because cybersecurity begins at the desktop. America’s important networks – and dangerous cyber vulnerabilities – are spread across the public and private sectors. In recent years, we’ve seen cyberattacks on major federal agencies and local governments, businesses large and small, systemically important critical infrastructure, and more. We need to tackle this threat together; as October is named National Cybersecurity Awareness Month, I urge every American to take commonsense steps to protect our information and networks from cyber threats.”

“Cybersecurity Awareness Month spotlights the importance of strengthening our cyber defenses and helps educate Americans on ways we can all help prevent cyberattacks,” said Senator Hassan. “We’ve seen firsthand in New Hampshire and across the country the threat that cyberattacks pose to our economy and our national security – and those threats are only growing. I will continue to work on a bipartisan basis to enhance cybersecurity at every level of government and increase public-private sector collaboration.”  

The National Cybersecurity Awareness Month Resolution will designate October 2021 as National Cybersecurity Awareness Month. The resolution highlights how cybersecurity threats pose national security and economic threats to the United States, and notes simple steps individuals and businesses can take, including setting strong passwords and using multi-factor authentication, to improve their individual cybersecurity. The resolution underscores the importance of public-private collaboration to ensure our nation has the tools and resources needed to respond to and recover from cyber-attacks. It also recognizes the importance of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) as they lead efforts to protect American networks.

###