By Michele Hearn, DRPC Graduate Assistant Researcher

The mission of Cybersecurity Awareness Month (CSAM), a collaboration between the government and private industry, is held every October to raise awareness about the importance of cybersecurity and to empower everyone to protect their personal data from digital forms of crime. The theme for Cybersecurity Awareness Month 2023 is, “Secure Our World.” This theme is focuses on 4 key behaviors users can take to help protect themselves and their organizations from cyber-based threats:

1. Use strong passwords and a password manager
2. Turn on multi-factor authentication
3. Recognize phishing and report it
4. Update software

CSAM events and activities throughout October are designed to help people learn more about these key behaviors and how to implement them in their own digital lives. Additionally, CSAM stakeholders provide resources for organizations and businesses to educate their employees and customers about the importance of cybersecurity measures. The overall goal of CSAM is to make the internet a safer place for all users. By raising awareness about cybersecurity and empowering people to take action to protect themselves, CSAM helps to reduce the risk of cyber attacks and their impact. Here are some specific examples of how CSAM can help to achieve its mission:

• Educating the public about cybersecurity threats and risks. Cybersecurity Awareness Month provides a platform for government agencies and private companies to share information about the latest cyber threats and risks. This helps people to better understand the dangers they face online and to take steps to protect themselves.
• Promoting best practices for cybersecurity. Cybersecurity Awareness Month promotes a variety of best practices for cybersecurity, such as using strong passwords, enabling multifactor authentication, and keeping software up to date. By following these best practices, people can significantly reduce their risk of becoming victims of cyber attacks.
• Encouraging people to take action to protect themselves. Cybersecurity Awareness Month encourages people to take action to protect themselves from cyber threats. This includes things like changing their passwords regularly, being careful about what links they click on, and being aware of phishing scams.

Ultimately, CSAM is an important opportunity to learn more about cybersecurity and to take steps to protect yourself and your organization from cyber threats, much like the Digital Rhetoric and Privacy Collective (DRPC). 

But, there are differences in their missions: they are closely related but are not the same thing. Cybersecurity is the practice of protecting systems, networks, and data from unauthorized access, use, disclosure, disruption, modification, or destruction. Digital privacy is the right to control how your personal information is collected, used and shared. Ultimately, cybersecurity and digital privacy fall under the same umbrella because their ultimate goal is protecting users, and having digital literacies in both will ultimately help you stay safe online. 

So, the mission of CSAM and the mission of the DRPC align in a number of ways. Both are committed to educating the public about cybersecurity threats and risks. CSAM does this by raising awareness about the latest cyber threats and promoting best practices for cybersecurity; the DRPC achieves this by teaching about digital privacy and surveillance in writing classrooms. Both are committed to empowering people to take action to protect themselves from cyber threats. CSAM does this by encouraging people to take steps like changing their passwords regularly, being careful about what links they click on, and being aware of phishing scams. The DRPC does this by helping teachers to develop resources and assignments that teach students about digital privacy and surveillance. In addition, both are committed to building a community of people who are invested in making the internet a safer place for everyone. CSAM does this by encouraging people to participate in CSAM events and activities. The DRPC does this by creating a network of engaged people thinking critically about some of the most timely, high-stakes topics of the day. Here are some specific examples of how CSAM and DRPC missions can work be thought of together to achieve their missions:

• The DRPC could develop resources and assignments that teach students about the cybersecurity threats and risks that they face. These resources could then be shared with the CSAM community.
• The CSAM community could promote the DRPC’s resources and assignments to teachers and students.
• The CSAM community and the DRPC could collaborate on events and activities that raise awareness about cybersecurity threats and risks and empower people to take action to protect themselves.

By working together, the CSAM community and the DRPC can make a significant impact in the fight against cyber threats.

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WAYS TO GET INVOLVED IN THE DRPC 

The DRPC Community includes students, scholars, and community members who are invested in building a coalition around the goal of teaching about digital privacy and surveillance in writing classrooms. We hope to cultivate a network of engaged people thinking critically about some of the most timely, high-stakes topics of the day. 

• Followers are friends of the DRPC who connect with us online. Follow us on Twitter @drpcollective, on Facebook (forthcoming), and on Instagram (forthcoming). You can find out more information about the collective at our website: www.drpcollective.com 
• Instructors are folks who make use of the resources archived with DRPC in their teaching. We want to hear about how you’re using the resources. Be sure to tag us on social media and use the hashtag #DRPCTeachers
• Friends are folks who want to engage in the intellectual and pedagogical conversations that DRPC is creating online and in our intellectual communities. You’ll find us at most conferences in Rhetoric and Writing Studies and we’d love to have you attend our sessions. You can also plug into the conversations we’re having once a month during DRPC Office Hours, where DRPC Advisory Board members facilitate a conversation about a topic of interest in the space of digital privacy and surveillance.

DRPC Collaborators are folks in our community who want to take a more active role in the mission of the DRPC. Collaborators can offer their time and labor to the collective in any of the ways listed below. It is important to the collective to make sure that everyone gets credit for their intellectual labor. To ensure that this happens, collaborators will receive a letter acknowledging their work on DRPC letterhead. We also encourage folks to cite the work of DRPC collaborators whenever possible (see examples below).

• Creators are folks who share their work with us so that we can extend its reach and amplify the work of teachers who care about rhetoric and critical digital literacy. If you have an assignment, an activity, or a resource that you want to make available to the DRPC community, email it to drpcollective@gmail.com to submit it for review/consideration.
• Contributors are folks who participate in a DRPC project by offering their expertise to bring it to fruition and circulate it within our intellectual and institutional networks.
• Partners are peer groups and organizations that connect with the DRPC to work collaboratively on either project-based or ongoing, mutually beneficial goals.