For 18 years, cybersecurity industry leaders and government agencies have joined to spread awareness for cyber threats and help all businesses, large or small, stay safe and #BeCyberSmart. As October kicks off National Cyber Security Awareness Month (NCSAM) the EDGE360 editorial team went straight to the source at TD SYNNEX to discover how they are helping Cisco partners stay informed, stay safe, and help their customers leverage the tools to protect against the latest threats.
To learn more about how Cisco partners can do their part, we spoke to Evan Bell, Product Business Manager for Cisco Security at TD SYNNEX, on how partners in the EDGE program can take advantage of the latest education, training, and technologies.
“It’s important that our partners stay on top of the latest threats and understand how to bolster security efforts with the latest Cisco technologies,” Bell told us in a recent interview. “We offer extensive training and education opportunities not only during National Cyber Security Awareness Month but throughout the year to help these partners build stronger Cisco security practices.”
The TD SYNNEX team encourages EDGE partners to focus on education during NCSAM and beyond. To #BeCyberSmart, Bell said you must have access to the latest training, certifications, and more. In fact, several events that TD SYNNEX and Cisco are hosting give partners hands-on experience that will help them fight the latest attacks.
“We are hosting a Threat Hunters event in late October that we hope our partners will join,” Bell explained. “It’s different from a typical webinar and a place for partners to jump in and use Cisco tools to actively respond to dynamic attacks.”
When an attack occurs, there is no time to waste. Events like the Threat Hunters interactive workshop will help partners get the training they need in a lab setting to create a security plan and give them practice using the technology and proven techniques.
As part of NCSAM’s themes, Week Two will focus on “Phight the Phish!” While phishing and ransomware have been around for quite some time, as users worked remotely and connected their own devices during the global pandemic, protecting against these attacks upped the stakes for IT departments. “Cisco Secure Cloud Mailbox was just named one of the 10 hottest cloud security tools,” Bell told us. “This solution makes it easy to secure Microsoft Office 365 email from the growing number of threats from malware to phishing or ransomware,” Bell said. He encourages Cisco partners to join him for a webinar on October 6 to learn more.
Two key elements that Bell pointed out that are of great importance to Cisco partners and the cybersecurity community alike are collaboration and networking. The cybersecurity landscape is shifting at such a rapid rate, it’s important not only to educate and build the expertise within the current community, but also to encourage younger professionals to look into cybersecurity-related careers. Week Three of NCSAM focuses on Cybersecurity Career Awareness, offering several resources to explore cyber careers. Similarly, Bell suggests that Cisco partners tap into the Cisco communities and forums that have been developed to interact with peers, gain access to resources, and network.
Bell concluded that while it is important to dedicate this month to National Cyber Security Awareness, it is an ongoing, every-day-of-the-year effort. “We are dedicated to helping our partners build their Cisco security practices and receive the training that they need,” he concluded. “It’s an ongoing effort to #BeCyberSmart, but we are all in this together to help fight the latest threats with leading Cisco solutions.”
