Every October is Cybersecurity Awareness Month — an annual, internationally recognized campaign (run in Canada through the Government of Canada's Get Cyber Safe program) to help people and organizations improve their security. For a busy small business, it's the perfect built-in prompt to stop and check your defences. Here's a simple, practical action plan you can actually work through.
Why bother with an "awareness month"?
Security is one of those things that's easy to keep putting off — until it's too late. A dedicated month is a useful nudge: a scheduled reason to spend a little time on something important but not urgent, before it becomes urgent for the wrong reasons. Think of it as an annual checkup for your business's digital health.
Your one-month action plan
You don't have to do everything at once. Tackle one item a week:
Week 1 — Lock down access
- Turn on multi-factor authentication (MFA) everywhere that matters, starting with email. It's the single highest-impact step. (Here's how and why.)
- Review who has access to what, and remove anything that's no longer needed.
Week 2 — Check your backups
- Confirm your important data — including Microsoft 365 — is actually being backed up.
- Most importantly: test a restore. An untested backup isn't really a backup. (Cloud vs on-site backup.)
Week 3 — Train your team
- Spend 20 minutes with your team on recognizing phishing and fake-invoice scams. Your people are your front line.
- Remind everyone: verify any payment or banking change by phone before acting.
Week 4 — Patch and tidy up
- Make sure computers and software are up to date, and retire anything unsupported (like Windows 10 past its end of support).
- Review your Wi-Fi and change any shared passwords that too many people know. (Wi-Fi security tips.)
Keep it going year-round
The point of an awareness month isn't to fix everything in October and forget it for eleven months — it's to build habits that stick. The businesses that stay secure treat these as ongoing practices, not annual chores. If keeping on top of it feels like more than you have time for, that's exactly what a managed IT partner handles for you.
The bottom line
Cybersecurity Awareness Month each October is a perfect prompt to check your defences without it feeling overwhelming. Tackle one thing a week — access, backups, training, patching — and you'll finish the month meaningfully more secure than you started. Then keep the habits going.
We help Alberta businesses build and maintain strong security all year round. Learn more about our cybersecurity services, or book a free evaluation to see where you stand.
Reference: Government of Canada — Get Cyber Safe (getcybersafe.gc.ca).