How Facebook’s Annual “Hacktober” Campaign Promotes Cybersecurity to Employees

While the word “cybersecurity” may evoke thoughts of highly sophisticated attacks that require fancy computing equipment and skilled hackers, the reality is that most attacks — especially in a corporate environment — involve simpler strategies that depend upon one thing: exploiting human behavior.

Most companies are hard at work building technology to better protect themselves and their users or customers. But technology can only get us so far. People are the most important factor in any company’s cybersecurity strategy, and investing in security engagement goes a long way in helping companies reduce the probability of a breach.

Facebook runs security engagement programs year-round, but the most important tool in our arsenal is Hacktober, an annual, monthlong tradition each October designed to build and maintain a security-conscious culture. It’s our version of National Cyber Security Awareness Month, a campaign to get people involved in cyber security and play their part in making the internet safer and more secure for everyone.

Hacktober has a number of different elements, from phishing tests and marketing campaigns to contests, workshops, and expert talks. Participation is not mandatory, but we find that about one-third of employees participate in at least one activity over the course of the month. Everything is designed to remind our employees how to protect themselves, our company, and the millions of people who use Facebook every day.

Security awareness can be engaging rather than scary — or worse, boring. If we create an interactive and fun environment around security, people will learn important security lessons and retain them throughout the year.

At Facebook, we take a “hacker” approach to security awareness because that ethos is a core part of our culture, which means it resonates with our employees. One of the best examples of this is our Capture the Flag (CTF) competitions.