Cybersecurity Awareness Month 2022: Seeing Yourself in Cyber with the MS-CC

By Teni Agbesanwa - MS-CC Program Coordinator

Estimated reading time: 3 minutes

In 2004, the National Cyber Security Alliance (opens in a new window) and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) declared October as Cybersecurity Awareness Month. This month is dedicated to providing people with online safety resources by emphasizing the importance of taking the proper steps to enhance cybersecurity on university campuses, workplaces, and homes.

See Yourself in Cyber

This year’s Cybersecurity Awareness Month’s campaign theme is “See Yourself in Cyber” and represents that cybersecurity is ultimately about people, which means seeing yourself in cyber no matter your role. 

According to the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency’s (CISA) website (opens in a new window), “this year’s campaign theme demonstrates that while cybersecurity may seem like a complex subject, ultimately, it’s really all about people.” Through this campaign, the CISA will highlight the key actions people should take, including enabling multi-factor authentication, using strong passwords, recognizing and reporting phishing, and keeping your software up to date. 

Approaching Cyberinfrastructure Holistically

This theme resonates strongly with our collective efforts within the Minority Serving Cyberinfrastructure Consortium (MS-CC) (opens in a new window) community to promote advanced cyberinfrastructure capabilities at historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs), tribal colleges and universities (TCUs), and other minority serving institutions (MSIs). 

The MS-CC approaches cyberinfrastructure holistically. Having the right technology and tools is one aspect of cyberinfrastructure and cybersecurity, but the people aspect is an equally important factor. Training and retaining your IT workforce is part of what contributes to the success of cyberinfrastructure and cybersecurity.

Community Input

For the past year, the MS-CC and Internet2 conducted a stakeholder alignment survey to better understand the shared challenges of cyberinfrastructure by a diverse set of minority serving institutions, and we used the survey data to help us prioritize which areas to focus our community engagement work on.

Cybersecurity and workforce development were two of the highest-ranked priorities by 238 respondents representing 121 HBCUs, 46 Hispanic-serving Institutions (HSIs), 59 TCUs, 6 MSIs, and 6 institutions with different classifications than the above. 

The MS-CC, in collaboration with Internet2 and AIHEC, launched a free series of cyberinfrastructure and cybersecurity workshops (opens in a new window), thanks to funding from the National Science Foundation for a Center of Excellence Demonstration Pilot grant (award # 2137123 (opens in a new window)).

Cyberinfrastructure and Cybersecurity Workshops

The cyberinfrastructure and cybersecurity workshop series (opens in a new window) provides hands-on learning experiences for information technology leadership and staff from HBCUs and TCUs focused on strategies and tactics to improve their institution’s cyberinfrastructure and cybersecurity posture. They provide hands-on learning opportunities and documented best practices for campus infrastructure, along with networking opportunities among peers, cybersecurity professionals, and leadership from regional and national organizations.

We held workshops at North Carolina A&T State University in Greensboro, NC., in June 2022, and Salish Kootenai College in Pablo, Mont., in August 2022. Our next workshop for this year is at Jackson State University in Jackson, Miss, on Nov. 1-2, 2022. We are also working on scheduling additional workshops in the southeastern United States for early 2023, including at Claflin University in Orangeburg, S.C.

Seeing Yourself in Cyber with the MS-CC

The MS-CC is committed to increasing access to cyberinfrastructure resources, enhancing collaboration among researchers and cyberinfrastructure professionals, and fostering professional and career development for students, faculty, and staff from minority serving campuses. 

As you reflect on this year’s Cybersecurity Awareness Month’s theme of seeing yourself in cyber, we invite you to join the MS-CC (opens in a new window) and help create a vibrant community of practice where peers can collaborate and support one another, and build a coalition to advocate for their needs as a community. 

Learn more about the MS-CC, get involved, (opens in a new window) and join us virtually on the last Thursday of each month (opens in a new window) at noon ET for our monthly MS-CC All Hands meeting.