Cybersecurity Awareness Month: Security starts with you

At Microsoft, security is central to everything, and Cybersecurity Awareness Month is framed as educating people as much as organisations, according to Microsoft Security Blog. As part of the Secure Future Initiative, which has mobilised more than 34,000 engineers since its November 2023 launch, Microsoft highlights progress such as phishing-resistant multifactor authentication now protecting 100% of production system accounts and 92% of employee productivity accounts.

The effort also includes reducing risk during new employee setup, with video-based verification now at 99%. The post points to new resources for security professionals, including SFI patterns and practices and the Be Cybersmart Kit, aimed at helping organisations teach staff about AI safety, phishing and secure sign-in.

A concrete example of a security-first culture is Franciscan Alliance, which runs regular phishing simulations and uses training that emphasises continuous learning and monthly newsletters during Cybersecurity Awareness Month. The piece also promotes an upcoming NASDAQ Summit session on 21 October 2025 that will discuss governance and security for AI, moderated by Microsoft’s Sarah Bird.