🎉 Happy Cybersecurity Awareness Month to all who observe. 🎉
There have now been 21 years of this momentous occasion. Twenty-one years! Old enough to buy a drink, but still young enough to communicate in memes.
But every October, it’s the same old messages: change your passwords, don’t Venmo that “prince” you met on Tinder, and maybe don’t buy your “CEO” $5,000 in Amazon gift cards when she emails you out of the blue.
We think it’s well past time to move beyond clichéd PSAs. In fact, we’re going to go as far as to forget about “awareness” altogether. Awareness is when you hang a "Think Before You Click" poster in the supply closet in the hopes Jimmy from Finance stops tapping NSFW links on his work phone. It’s way too passive.
This year, in honor of over two decades of CAM, we’re doing what any newly minted 21-year-old would: BE OFFENSIVE.
What it really means to “Be Offensive”
Before HR starts clutching their pearls, we’re not talking about shouting obscenities across Slack channels. We’re talking about offense-minded defense. Thinking like the scammer’s scammer.
Right now, cybersecurity feels like a game with the worst possible odds. Hackers only have to be right once. But you’ve got to be right EVERY 👏 SINGLE 👏 TIME 👏
Being offensive means spotting gaps, poking holes in your own defenses, and acting before the breach alert hits like a dreaded “Can u hop on a quick call?” text from your boss.
Why the industry needs an attitude adjustment
The issue with security isn’t that people don’t care. The issue is that no one realizes how real it gets until they’re caught up in it. Until they actually end up sending $5,000 worth of Amazon cards to whom they assume is their CEO (because, apparently, every CEO has time to run a bootleg side hustle).
But most Cybersecurity Awareness Month campaigns can put you to sleep faster than NyQuil (and, frankly, we’re probably guilty of that ourselves). It’s annual presentations on, “Don’t click bad link!” Meanwhile, half your team is scrolling Instagram while someone halfheartedly flips through a PowerPoint about spam filters.
This isn’t laziness. It’s a sign the system needs to change.
The problem is that someone’s always been talking at you instead of with you. They've been preaching compliance instead of inspiring action.
When security feels like a chore, people cut corners. It’s human nature. They make passwords like “Password123.” They’ll hit “Remind me later” on updates until the sun burns out. And they won’t think twice before forwarding their bank logins to “Prince Olaf of Trust-Me-Brohemia” because he promised them $200 million as soon as he can access his account.
What we’ve got coming up this October
Huntress wants you—and the rest of our community of ethical badasses—to thrive. Instead of another month of tired reminders, we’re loading up on resources to help you embrace an offensive mindset. Here's a few to note:
Tradecraft Tuesday (10/14) - This month’s episode exposes threats hiding in your network, complete with real-world examples and actionable detection strategies.
Fireside Chat (10/16) - Join us as we cut through the jargon and humanize cybersecurity because *shocker* the human element is often our biggest vulnerability and our greatest strength.
"Hack the Hackers: Offensive Strategies for Cyber Defense" (10/22) - Join us for this webinar where our experts reveal how to think, act, and strike like a threat actor using creative tactics that can disrupt them before they attack.
The Product Lab (10/23) - Join our founders for another edition of The Product Lab as they chat openly about what Huntress has in the works. Your candid feedback is encouraged. Show up, chime in, and even heckle them (they’ll probably thank you for it).
Educational blogs (Ongoing) - As always, we’ll continue to arm you with offensive security tactics you can unleash in your own environment.
Incident Response Tabletop-in-a-Box - Be sure to get this success kit and practice offensive thinking before you need to in a real crisis.
"Gift of SAT” (Ongoing) - At Huntress, we love to give back, so we’re giving you free access to select Managed Security Awareness Training episodes that’ll engage you instead of bore you to sleep.
Capture the Flag (All October) - This month-long cybersecurity challenge is built for the bold. Packed with daily puzzles and realistic attack scenarios, it’s designed to test your wits. Whether you’re here to sharpen your skills, win exciting prizes, or simply enjoy bragging rights, you’ve found the place to be.
Be offensive, but stay classy
Let’s stop treating CAM like another forgettable “awareness” campaign. As some ancient philosopher (or your middle-school gym teacher) once said, “The best defense is a good offense.” This month, we’re helping you put that into practice.
See the full lineup of everything we’ve got coming your way this Cybersecurity Awareness Month.
Cheers 🍻. Here’s to changing how we think about threats and defense.
